MEGA MIKO
by SKOOLATOON
Summary: Reimu Hakurei wakes up one night to find a strange, old man at her door step. What could this be about...?


Reimu Hakurei awoke in the middle of the night with a jolt. Something was amiss, she could just feel it. Placing her hand to her chest, she felt as if something inside was...lost, detached, or simply misplaced. She couldn't put her finger on it, but this wasn't just a problem she could shrug off, she was sure of it.

Clambering out of her futon, she lazily threw on her traditional shrine maiden outfit. Exiting her room, she looks around the shrine.

"Why am I even up…?" she grumbles to herself, scratching her back idly. The cold tinge of winter air filled the shrine.

A knocking sound at the shrine's front door causes Reimu to jump. 'At this time of night…?'

Reimu clutches her gohei, moving to the front door. She slides it open lazily, gazing out into the night at the figure infront of her.

"Ah, yes, Reimu Hakurei was it?"

A short, balding, old man stood infront of her, donning a lab coat, two tufts of hair on the sides of his head, and a very peculiar mustache.

"What are you doing here so late? Furthermore… what's with that attire? You're not from around here."

Reimu was cutting straight to the point; not just anybody comes to your house in crazy get-up and inquires who you are in the middle of the night.

"Oh, where are my manners, miss Hakurei? I simply came to inquire a… business proposition, as it were."

"We don't want any." Reimu tried slamming the door, for it to be held open by the old man.

"I insist that you listen, child!" He angrily forced himself through the door, before patting himself off once he got inside.

Reimu let go of the door, and crossed her arms. "I don't think you're in a position to offer me anything."

The old man smirked. "Oh, am I? I suppose we'll just have to do this the hard way then!"

Pulling out a strange blaster, he aimed it point-blank at the miko. Before she could even react, he fired.

"Gaah! Wha-huh!?" Reimu was flung through the door to the shrine. Rolling across the floor, she attempted to call upon her holy abilities. To her surprise, however…

"Hahahah! You feel it don't you? The absence of your power? It wasn't so hard to be rid of afterall; some power diversion engineering when nobody was looking proved to be of great effect!"

"B-bastard…" Reimu cursed, struggling to stand from the stone flooring outside the shrine, clothes in tatters. The old man fiddled with his blaster, then pulling out a canister.

"This is just the beginning of my new reign in this realm! I cannot wait to see what wonders magic will do for my research!"

Taking the canister, the old man opened it up and inhaled the contents. Reimu had finally stood up, facing him, as the canister's contents started to produce smoke.

Reimu begins coughing as the smoke flows across the front of the shrine, reaching her. As it dissipates, the old man had cast aside the canister… and appeared to no longer be an old man.

"There we go… I knew the disguisamo-zapomatic would come in handy- but not like this!"

He now had the appearance of the Hakurei miko, down to a T, minus the maniacal expression on her face; including being fully clothed, unlike the actual Hakurei miko at the moment.

"W-what…" Reimu didn't know how to address this situation anymore, but she knew it clearly wasn't going in her favor. In attempts to usurp the situation back in her favor, she decided to charge towards him at an angle, however without her flight or holy abilities she was unable to do much. The clone, on the other hand…

Fwoosh! Thwack!

Reimu was struck by the very same ofuda she once used; provided, it didn't do much of anything to her due to her inherent holy affinities, but she froze the moment she recognized her doppelganger's moves.

"Hmm, that doesn't seem effective… how about this!?"

Charging a large yin-yang orb, the doppelganger nailed Reimu with it before she had time to escape the vicinity. Flying into the nearby forest from the impact, the Hakurei miko blacked out.

* * *

"Ughhh…"

Reimu groaned as she rose from the forest floor; she wasn't far from the shrine, as she could see it from here, but her limbs were stiff and she had numerous scratches from the launch; she probably broke something but she couldn't link the pain to any specific locations as of yet.

As she thought about it, despite the cold of the winter air, she was surprised to find she had no major signs of frost damage.

' _Either I wasn't out for long or I just have really dumb luck…_ ' Reimu thought to herself as she sighed. It was just early morning after all, she couldn't have been out for that long.

' _...I still feel cold!_ ' Reimu hugged herself, shivering. Clothes in tatters, she began to make her way towards the shrine.

* * *

Nearing the apparently repaired door, Reimu heard voices.

"Wooaah, that really happened, ze!?"

"It was nothing I couldn't take care of."

Reimu heard her voice in there, and she was talking with Marisa.

'What the hell!?' Reimu was alarmed by this development.

"I'm glad you took care of it so readily, ze. I woulda been mad surprised if some doppelganger showed up at my doorstep!"

Reimu slammed the door open.

Her doppelganger acted immediately, standing up and brandishing ofuda. Marisa responded in turn, pointing her mini-hakkero at Reimu.

"Ohhh, looks like it's back for round two, ze!"

Reimu glanced between the two of them, shock on her face. "Tch… To think I could have let this happen…"

The doppelganger tossed some ofuda, of which had minimal effect again.

"Leave, now. I already launched you out of here once without exorcising you. Don't make me reconsider." The doppelganger sternly said.

Reimu looked sad for a moment, but then had a cocky smile on her face. "Bring it on."

Marisa readied her mini-hakkero, but the doppelganger instructed her to stand down. "I've got this, Marisa. You just stay back and watch."

Marisa looked hesitant, but awkwardly agreed.

Flying up to her, the doppelganger, lifted her up. "He-hey! What are you-"

The doppelganger turned towards Marisa. "I'm taking this one somewhere discreet for the exorcism. Watch the shrine while I'm gone."

Marisa furrowed her brows but reluctantly agreed. "...Alright…"

With that, the doppelganger flew into the distance carrying Reimu.

* * *

"Hmph, pesky shrine maiden. I thought I had made it clear to you not to meddle in my business." The doppelganger stated, dropping the act without anyone around.

"I can assure you, that I will find a way through this." Reimu stated assertively, legs dangling as she was held by the arms.

"Hah, we'll see about that, you brat! And I have a name too, and you'd best learn to respect it!" The doppelganger snapped at Reimu.

As they approached a rather uninteresting forest clearing, Reimu decided to push some more buttons. "You had a name? Considering you're trying to take mine, it's probably not that great of a name anyway."

They dropped down onto the forest clearing, the doppelganger unceremoniously dropping Reimu onto the floor from a couple feet.

"Augh!" Reimu rolled as she landed, receiving more scrapes.

"My name is Professor Doctor Wily! And you had best not forget it, child, as it will be one of your last experiences to have had the pleasure of knowing before you're to be put to death!"

Reimu raised from the floor and gave Wily a deadpan stare. "Professor doctor?"

Wily looked over questioningly. "Hmm? What is it?"

The two continued walking into the clearing.

"No, I mean, seriously? Professor doctor?" Reimu exasperatedly continued

Wily raised a brow. "What about it?"

Reimu shook her head. "Nevermind, it's not important."

"...You are trying my patience, worm."

"And you sound like a broken record." Reimu countered.

A latch opened in the clearing, the whirring of metal and sounds of machinery giving way to a metallic cave underneath the clearing.

"And you will soon be broken, period! Hahahahaaaah!" Wily laughed, before kicking Reimu into the cave where she tumbled down the slide before landing on a large gear. The latch to the cave lowered before promptly closing, trapping Reimu within the bowels of the metal cave.

* * *

METAL MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Despite the cave closing, there was still light present in the metalic cavern. Reimu looked around, and seeing a conveyor belt infront of her, she decided to step onto it; there was nowhere else to go.

All around her was an array of floating platforms in the shape of gears, conveyor belts, and arrays of crushing machines. Getting swept by the conveyor belt, she turned before it reached the end which would have dumped her into the abyss, and ran.

She easily outran the conveyor belt, but she just ended up back at the platform she began on. Turning and seeing a conveyor belt over the one she was just one, she ran down the conveyor belt and performed a great leap, landing on the conveyor belt. She had little time to recouperate, however, as she had to dash to keep on that one aswell.

Clambering onto a new solid platform, she looked ahead at the giant crushers on chains.

' _This is going to be a long day…_ '

* * *

Treading forward on a series of conveyor belts, Reimu felt a familiar presence near her. Her instincts screamed at her.

Fwoosh!

Reimu barely avoided having her head lopped off by a sawblade that flew straight overhead by bending backwards, and promptly falling over.

"Welcome to my level, my na~me is Metal Miko, and I throw metal blades from my, metal hands!"

Reimu gave a deadpan look at the girl infront of her, only for her expression to turn to shock.

' _Another doppelganger? This one had best not be as troublesome…_ '

This clone had a primary white color like Reimu's normal outfit, but the hems were a rustic brown instead of red. She also had her hair tied up in a big ponytail.

Reimu grew slightly worried because she hadn't been able to do anything offensive as of recent. She tried calling her yin-yang orbs and pins to little avail. Desperately concentrating to summon her ofudas, she finally succeeded…

... in summoning a single, yellow, danmaku ofuda, as opposed to anything of lethal power.

Tossing the single ofuda, Metal Miko jumped out of the way easily. "C'mon, aren't you supposed to be the source?... Hehe, I guess you're not all that people've cracked you up to be!"

Metal Miko continued laughing before continuing. "Alright, I'll tell you what, if you want to take me on, step inside my metal room down here, and we'll battle to the break of dawn!"

Reimu fumed as the brown clone danced around, before teleporting away.

' _That girl's annoying…_ '

* * *

Proceeding forward and dodging slews of drills and bits and things via varied flips and narrow dives, Reimu found herself taking great leaps of faith down shafts onto series of conveyor belts. At the bottom, she found jesters dancing on gears, who upon catching sight of her, directed their gears to move towards her.

Willing herself to create a yellow ofuda, she tossed it at one of the gears, causing a light flash as it dissipated, and the gear briefly glowed. Reimu continued tossing ofuda at the gear until it gave a small blast and was vaporized, causing the jester to fall off the conveyor belt and into oblivion.

' _...Alright, that works._ ' Reimu decided; she wasn't going to question the properties of her new ofuda, but anything was better than nothing.

Rolling out of the way of one of the other gears, Reimu ran forward and leapt to the next conveyor. After a series of dodging gears and leaping over conveyor belts.

Standing infront of a door was the Metal Miko, performing a dance. "You want to fight and try to be the one to bring me down, but I know that there's no cha~nce! And I know, that as soon as you step foot inside that door, you'll fall victim to my, metal da~nce!"

She leapt behind Reimu quickly, attempting to grope her, only to find a face full of ofuda. "Don't even think about it, pervert!"

Metal Miko stumbled backwards. "Geez Reimu, it's hard to think we were once part of each other at all…"

Reimu raised a brow at her words, but didn't respond.

Metal Miko giggled. "Armed with metal blades, conveyor belts, and funk, they all bend to my metal will, turning my enemies to junk! And, no hard feelings, that includes you! I may have been instructed to take you down, but…" Metal Miko smirked.

"It's coming down to the hour of the fight...wouldn't it be better if I was the real Hakurei Reimu? I was built from your desires, and right now yours all but absent… so let's see which state of being is better!"

With a laugh, Metal Miko disappeared and the door behind her opened, leading to an empty corridor. Reimu took a deep breath, preparing herself, as she walked into the corridor.

* * *

The door shut behind Reimu as she walked through another door which also shut behind her. She was now in an empty, rectangular room; the sides displayed the platforms and machinery like other areas of the metal cavern.

Beaming down infront of Reimu was the Metal Miko, whom gave a cheerful smile towards Reimu before tossing a barrage of metal blades at Reimu.

Reimu leapt into the air and tossed ofuda as the Metal Miko leapt up and down, tossing triplets of metal blades.

The conveyor belt serving as the floor of the arena quickly started up, throwing Reimu off her balance, yet her fall luckily moved her out of the way of a close encounter with a blade.

Reimu stood up and jumped over a metal blade, moving forward and tossing ofuda. Various slips struck Metal Miko, causing her to be less steady on her feet.

Once Reimu got too close, Metal Miko performed a great leap across the room and continued tossing triplets of blades at Reimu. Reimu deflected one by rapidly tossing about six ofuda at it.

Reimu eventually slid enough ofuda in between Metal Miko's metal blades to start to really slow her down.

"If you think you can really try and bring me down…" Metal Miko spun, sending blades haphazardly across the room.

"That was easier to dodge than your normal barra-" Reimu was interrupted.

"You better watch out for those blades, girl, because you'll end up headless!" Metal Miko looked up with a maniacal grin as the blades all zoomed towards Reimu.

Reimu dodged at an angle, her arm and back getting cut by spinning sawblades that zoomed past her.

"Tch…" Reimu clenched her teeth as she tossed more ofuda, these ones making the Metal Miko flinch violently.

"A-ah! No… no fair…" Metal Miko weakly tossed sawblades that clanked and clattered to the floor.

"Victim to your metal dance, hmm?" Reimu tossed an ofuda at Metal Miko, knocking her over.

Reimu walked over to her and stood over her. "So, what are my chances?"

Metal Miko weakly but scornfully glared at Reimu from the floor.

"Very well then."

Reimu raised the last ofuda, an actual, holy ofuda forming. She cast it down to Metal Miko's skull, creating a large light explosion as Metal Miko was instantly vaporized.

Reimu put her hand to her chest, feeling like she found something that she lost. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. 'I wonder how the shrine is holding up...that balding old man better not have done any drastic redecorating…'

She opened her eyes again; her tattered clothing was restored, except this time with a twist.

She was wearing Metal Miko's variant of the shrine maiden outfit.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 32000

Defeated METAL MIKO: 20000

Shooting things: 12000

* * *

Reimu tried to visualize an ofuda, but instead wound up with a giant, sharp sawblade.

' _That works too._ '

She was able to fly freely within the metal cavern now, so she simply backtracked until she was at the entrance to the metal cave. Glancing around the wall, she found a large button with caution signs around it in the shaft under the entrance. Slamming the button, the latch opened and Reimu was free to float out of the metal cave.

It was night when Reimu saw the sky once more; so much about battling until dawn.

Reimu made her way back to her shrine; she was at the front steps now. Nothing looked different on the outside, which was a plus, Reimu supposed.

She began her walk to the misty lake, contemplating her next move.

' _Marisa… I'll make sure to keep you safe from that madman, when I can._ '

This moment of reprise let the gravity of the situation hit Reimu.

' _Damn gap hag, sleeping at a time like this…_ '

"If only I knew where to go from here…" Reimu said aloud, lost in thought. ' _The words of a doppelganger have likely been circulating already, and I'm probably going to be the one to blame._ '

However, Reimu's reflection period abruptly ended. "Is that so~?"

Rumia floated in from the trees, apparently hearing Reimu's mumblings.

"Don't make me exorcise you. You know what I'm capable of." Reimu set a bluff…

Rumia sniffed the air. "Eh? You don't smell like the miko, but you look like her… but you're obviously not her! Her clothes are red and white, not brown and white!" ...and  
Rumia called the bluff, inadvertently or otherwise.

Reimu sighed. "Look, I can still beat you up, so get out of my way."

Rumia giggled. "Well, let's just see about that, shall we?" Firing basic danmaku, Rumia floated gently towards the miko.

Reimu materialized danmaku sawblades and tossed them at Rumia, who dodged a majority of them but still got hit solidly in the torso multiple times, eventually being forced to retreat after she got sloppier and sloppier with each hit, and her darkness shield made more potent with each strike.

"A-ah…" Rumia eventually dizzily crashed into a tree and was knocked out.

"Well, I'm not totally defenseless…" Reimu said to herself, smiling.

* * *

' _Hmmm… what can I do…?_ '

Reimu Hakurei sat upon the shore of the misty lake, poking a sawblade in the water; her gohei was lost earlier when she first fell into the metal labyrinth.

A whirlpool formed where Reimu was poking the water, and as it grew it swirled out into deeper waters to allow itself to form.

Reimu felt regret for allowing that mad doctor infiltrate her life so easily. She felt powerless, and for the first time in a long time, genuinely afraid.

' _This all happened so abruptly...but I have no choice other than to carry on…_ '

Her costume reverting to the rags she wore before besting Metal Miko, Reimu dived into the water.

' _If I can't act right now, I suppose I'll just handle small mysteries for now… Where did this whirlpool come from anyway…?_ '

Little did she know, this was no small mystery.

* * *

BUBBLE MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Being whisked under the water by the whirlpool, Reimu found herself with a magic bubble around her head preventing her from drowning.

' _How convenient…_ ' Reimu noted as a figure swam up to her.

Yet another shrine maiden it appeared; this one donning a snorkel and goggles, along with a solid grey outfit throughout with little deviation in color. Instead of sandals, she had flippers on.

"Ah… It's this clown." the miko said, presumably giving a glare were her facial expression not totally neutralized by the swimming gear.

"Who're you calling a clown? Have you seen that outfit of yours? I bet your brain's waterlogged too. This is a waste of my time…" Reimu complained, preparing to swim back up.

"Hold it, armpit miko!" The clone whisked her back under to her level.

"Do you really want to go so bad? I can do it right here under the waves if you want. What do you go by anyway, Bubble Miko? Bathtime Miko?" Reimu snarked, dully gazing at the clone.

"Uh, I go by the first one, Bubble Miko."

"...Alright, fine. Nice name." Reimu commented with a smirk.

"And do you go by Armpit Miko?"

"Leaving." Reimu began swimming upward again.

"Just hold your horses a second!" Bubble Miko whisked Reimu back down. "Listen, miko, if you can't navigate through my underlake maze, I'm going to drown you, get that?"

Reimu yawned.

Bubble Miko glared at her. "I want to show you, if I can…"

Reimu lazily laid her eyes back on Bubble Miko.

"I won't rest until I have defeated you."

Reimu watched as Bubble Miko swam into the waves and disappeared. Reimu found herself surrounded by water mines and apparently youkai seahorses; things Reimu only heard in legends, but despite that they're not particularly anything to write home about.

' _You'd think water creatures would be a bit more adept at maneuvering in the water…_ '

Reimu was simply rolling and floating out of the way as sea horses charged her, some catching mouths full of ofuda and others just charging off into oblivion. By the time she was done, the environment around her had changed.

Swimming through the metal underwater cavern that appeared around her, Reimu found herself in thought.

' _Where exactly in the lake are we anyway? It's not as cold as normal… and the metal architecture appears similar to that Metal Miko's hideout…_ '

Reimu bobbed and weaved through series of water proximity mines and was careful not to near the surface, as it seemed to be coated in floating mines. She navigated past various walls and only very occasionally a very dimwitted youkai sea-horse tried its luck only to get annihilated.

Swimming through a bare corridor, metalic jellyfish started to phase in from the walls. Tossing her ofuda, they were shredded or deflected.

' _As if my next course of action weren't obvious already…_ '

Reimu changed into her Metal Miko attire, as the metal jellyfish slowly floated closer. Throwing her sawblades, they cleaved right into the sides of the jellyfish and caused them to explode violently. Dodging series of jellyfish and explosions, Reimu found herself doing barrelrolls down the hallway.

* * *

After her trek through the flooded metal cavern, Reimu came to a doorway.

A flash of light, and Bubble Miko appeared.

Reimu was impatient at this point. "Are we going to settle the score yet? You were eager to fight weren't you?"

"..." Bubble Miko simply glared at her.

"What, unsure about it already?"

"They'll all see. The strongest of all the other Miko is me." Bubble Miko held her stern glare.

Reimu groaned. "There's more of you!?"

Bubble Miko chuckled. "Don't worry, they won't be a problem… because you're going to die under these waves!"

Floating back towards the door behind her, it opened and let her in, and stayed open.

Reimu shrugged and floated into the doorway…

* * *

Waiting in the large, rectangular cave was Bubble Miko, posing triumphantly. At the roof of the cave was a bunch of water mines piled up on the ceiling.

"I promise you! I won't rest until I have slain you, Miko!"

"And I promise you that you won't even come close, Bathtime Miko."

The two glared at eachother for a time. Bubble Miko then floated up into the air, unleashing bouncing bubbles across the field.

Ducking under the bubbles, Reimu tosses a blade upwards and pops a few, striking Bubble Miko, who floats backwards in shock. Tossing another blade, Reimu floats forward.

Reimu was confident. 'This won't last much longer; surely she'll have realized my power and surrendered…'

"I fight strong!"

Bubble Miko spun like a drill and sped through the water, forcing Reimu to barrel out of the way, and even then continue to get spun around by the current of Bubble Miko's charge.

"I swim fast!"

Bubble Miko quickly leaps across the room, raining bubbles down towards Reimu who barely dodges while trying to orient herself. One of the bubbles lands on Reimu, and her protective air bubble around her head is replaced by one full of water for a few seconds, causing her to sputter and cough for air before it turns to normal.

"You won't last!"

Bubble Miko sends strong missiles composed entirely of current force at Reimu, who is forced to barrel out of the way once more, but with much less gusto this time.

"I'll live on!"

Rushing in for the killing blow, Bubble Miko gets ready for a final jab to Reimu's lungs, as Reimu reverts her costume to the rags of her former shrine maiden outfit and tosses a few danmaku ofuda at Bubble Miko, slowing her down and forcing her to flinch.

'This brief window… I can't lose here!' Reimu tried to dodge…

Reimu flailed in the water, producing no movement, but the flinch caused Bubble Miko to miss her target and strike Reimu's ribcage instead. Spiraling away, Reimu threw more ofuda towards Bubble Miko and triggered multiple flinches.

Bubble Miko spun around again, preparing another water-drill attack. Reimu was ready this time, switching back to her Metal Miko outfit with a brief flash, and then tossing a couple blades in a direct collision course with Bubble Miko as she spun towards her.

Bubble Miko struck the blades; the spinning allowed her to tear the blades apart, but at a price: her speed. Slowly but powerfully barreling through the water, she continued to make her way towards Reimu…

...who just floated out of the way. As the spin winded down, Reimu tossed some blades towards Bubble Miko's back, which took them full-force.

"A-aagh!"

Frenzied, Bubble Miko whirled around, sending bubbles everywhere. Reimu tossed blades haphazardly to pop ones that neared her. As the bubbles died down, Bubble Miko leapt towards Reimu, who tossed another blade.

"Gua-ach…"

Bubble Miko's snorkel was cracked as a blade ricocheted through the water off it.

"I-I'll prove them all wrong…" Bubble Miko flipped back upright, and shot some more water current-missiles, which Reimu managed to successfully weave through.

Reimu threw a final blade.

"This is my redemption battle!"

The blade was impaled within Bubble Miko's stomach. Floating down gently, Bubble Miko's eyes slowly fluttered.

"My… redemption…"

Her eyes closed. All was quiet.

Suddenly, a large explosion engulfed Bubble Miko's body, vaporizing her completely.

Reimu had a melancholic expression. ' _...Redemption, huh?..._ '

After a moment of silence, Reimu gave a brief "oh" and tried to summon her ofuda…

...to wind up with water-current circulating around her hand… in addition to a snorkel, goggles, and a pair of flippers all pre-installed for no extra charge!

Reimu folded her arms. Her shrine maiden attire was various shades of gray now.

' _...Words cannot describe my irritation…_ '

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 71000

Defeated RUMIA: 1000

Defeated BUBBLE MIKO: 20000

Shooting things: 8000

Cutting things: 10000

* * *

Reimu easily glided out of the cave and to the surface of the Misty Lake; apparently Bubble Miko's cave itself was located somewhere randomly amidst the bottom of it; the whole labyrinth apparently vanished.

Resurfacing, she swam ashore and got onto dry land, proceeding to drop to the earth to hug it.

' _Never thought I'd experience any form of water paranoia… but these past few days have been a series of firsts._ '

The morning's sun shone down on Reimu as she slowly drifted to sleep on the shore of the Misty Lake.

* * *

Reimu awoke upon a mattress. Sitting up slowly, she rubbed her eyes and blinked. Red walls, red carpets, victorian design…

Knowing exactly where she was, Reimu hopped out of bed, pausing to curiously eye the scarlet pajamas she awoke in. Approaching the door, she found it locked.

' _Strange…_ ' She's pretty sure Remilia isn't normally the type to lock her guests away in their rooms.

Sakuya Izayoi appeared behind her. "Hello, miko. The mistress wishes to see you now."

Reimu furrowed her brows as she turned around. "Miko? I'm pretty sure you know my name."

Sakuya's expression didn't change. "I know of a miko with a name, but you're not that one, surely."

Reimu looked down at her pajamas, as she changed into her latest outfit through the use of her ability switching…

"...D-definitely not the miko I know of, anyway." Sakuya's expression may have hardly changed…

' _...Oh right, the clunky swim gear..._ '

...but Reimu just knew she was laughing like a madman on the inside.

* * *

"Sit down, won't you? Stay awhile." Remilia Scarlet gestured the open seat in front of the dining room table.

Reimu sat down awkwardly, attracting stares from the other mansion residents and fairy maids due to her unique snorkel attire.

"...I've heard there was a doppelganger of the shrine maiden going around… but surely it couldn't be you? I mean… you look pretty, shall we say… strange?"

Reimu sighed, shifting her ability and a faint glow adorning her as she shifted into her Metal Miko outfit.

"...Ah, yes, that looks a lot more sensible, now I see that rumor holds a bit more credit." Remilia sipped her tea.

Patchouli Knowledge looked up from her late night waffles. "If I recall… the Hakurei shrine-maiden didn't change outfits hap-hazardly. Besides, what we've seen so far is only eerily similar to Reimu, but nothing's actually correctly replicated her red-white color scheme. The colors are wrong."

Reimu looked at Patchouli, bored. "Good job. Have a medal for your astute observation."

Patchouli shrugged. "Then why don't you give me one?"

Reimu paused in thought, then proceeded to reply. "Does it matter what it looks like or how I give it to you?"

Patchouli didn't look up from her waffles. "Don't care."

Reimu lifted her hand, materializing a sawblade. She tossed it forward, cleaving the waffles and the plate they rested upon in twain, and embedding itself in the table.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Reimu. Patchouli looked pissed.

"...You've got to admit, she was asking for it."

* * *

Now seated in the chair with her arms tied to said chair, Reimu stared at a plate of simple bread.

Remilia sat with her fingers interlocked. "I don't take kindly to threats within my home, you know."

Dinner was over for awhile now, and everyone but Patchouli and Sakuya had departed for their respective nightly positions and places.

"What was your intention, anyhow? Copying the Hakurei miko, and all."

Reimu glared. "That's what I want to know."

Remilia glared back. "Don't play games with me, child. I know you've not even half the power the red-white has. It would be best if you remembered that."

Reimu didn't bother to reply, instead just dully staring into the distance.

'There doesn't seem to be any leads here.'

"Hey!" Remilia slammed her fists down on the table, leaving imprints. "I will not ask you again. What was your intention?"

Reimu gave a simple glare. "I won't tell you again, that this discussion is meaningless and that the real Miko's absent!"

Remilia widened her eyes. "Absent? Explain."

' _There we go._ '

Before Reimu could say anything, Patchouli chipped in. "Be aware that this imposter might be lying to us to further her own goals. Take what you will of that."

Remilia narrowed her eyes. "Then we'd best hope this is one thorough explanation."

Reimu mentally sighed. 'Crap. Her and her analytical skills…'

Reimu started explaining. "Well, you see, there are multiple imposters of the Hakurei shrine maiden running about. I'm just one of them."

Remilia sipped her tea. "And I'm supposed to believe you?"

Reimu nodded. "We all have different abilities, and different costumes. I have multiple because… I killed some of them."

Remilia raised an eyebrow. "And why would you want to do that?"

Reimu gave a smirk, for added effect. "Because the last one standing expects to be the real Hakurei. That's the way things are settled between us."

Looking up from her book again, Patchouli gave advice. "Sounds like an incident if I've ever heard one, and one that disables the Hakurei shrine maiden at that. I'll see if I can organize some incident resolvers to come by and check this out."

Grinning, Remilia turned to Patchouli. "Great idea! We'll also hold _this_ imposter for further questioning and aid during the proceedings…"

' _That's not any good! I can't afford to just sit around tied to a chair!_ '

Reimu gave Remilia a shit-eating grin, as she had a stupid idea, but it'd work. She hoped. The Hakurei intuition was rarely wrong.

' _It better not be wrong this time or I'm going to die here_!'

"I challange you to battle, Remilia Scarlet! If I'm the victor, I get to leave this mansion, uninhibited."

Remilia dropped her teacup, before chuckling. Patchouli looked at Reimu in surprise. Sakuya dashed towards Reimu, knives at the ready as she held one against Reimu's throat.

Remilia burst out laughing. "Pffft- hahahah! S-Sakuya! S-stand down! Hahah...right." Remilia composed herself before speaking, as Sakuya withdrew her knife from the miko's throat. "You've made a grievous error, child. Sakuya, cut the ropes."

Sakuya reluctantly cut open the ropes with her knives before teleporting back to Remilia's side.

"I'll settle this here, and now. Quickly, and painlessly. You're a disgrace to the real Reimu. You're gonna die for that." Remilia made haughty steps towards Reimu as she walked across the dining table.

Reimu got up and shifted into her Bubble Miko outfit. She then hopped backwards and backed up to the wall, her flippers creating audible "plaps" against the carpeted floor.

"That outfit's an eyesore. Someone had ought to do something about that…" Remilia raised a spear…

Reimu raised her hand, calling for something. There was no water around so current manipulation was out of the question, but…

A bubble materialized in Reimu's hand. ' _...Oh, no._ '

"I'm gonna cleanse you from Gensokyo! Spear the Gungnir!" Remilia tossed her huge energy spear that she had been charging, which soared straight for Reimu who tossed a bubble at the spear.

Scarlet energy and water collided. The spear was drenched in the bubble's water, causing it to crackle and spark as it slowed down and lost its homing properties, allowing Reimu to spare a graze of it. Scarlet energy rippled through her body harmfully, but she could take it.

"What!? Gungnir doesn't just miss like that! How could this happen!?" Remilia yelled, breaking the dining table in two as she stomped on it.

Taking this opportunity, Reimu shot another bubble which rolled along the floor.

Sakuya took notice and threw a knife into the bubble, popping it and creating a puddle.

Patchouli looked like she wanted to say something, but Remilia's fit discouraged her from speaking out.

Shooting two bubbles, Reimu ran along with one to try and get it near Remilia. She ran infront of the two bubbles as they rolled. Sakuya appeared behind her and popped one.

"You! This is your fault!" Remilia charged for Reimu, who reflexively dove as she felt the powerful force of Remilia's charge sweep by and the resulting wind knocked her back into the wall.

"Mistress!"

"Remi!"

Remilia had charged into the bubble and got drenched in running water. Collapsing to the floor, she began shivering.

Reimu took this opportunity to dive out the window, as Patchouli and Sakuya tended to their collapsed mistress.

* * *

Reimu sat in the dining room tied up, again.

Remilia sat across from her, curled up in a blanket, sipping a warm cup of hot chocolate while pieces of the dining table were burning nearby to create a makeshift campfire.

Sakuya stood by her mistress, holding a pair of mittens.

"Your mittens, mistress."

Remilia used her other hand to take them. She looked around and furrowed her brows. "Where am I supposed to put this cup…?"

Sakuya popped infront of her with a random end-table. "Here, mistress."

"Thank you, Sakuya."

' _I forgot about that lousy gatekeeper…_ ' Reimu thought to herself as she scowled. Now that she thinks about it, she didn't get very far…

* * *

\- Flashback…

Reimu rolled from the impact of her dive, and immediately ran towards the gate on the left. Reaching it, she donned her Metal Miko clothes and had began tossing metal blades at the lock, causing minimal damage each time.

"Whaza...whuh?" Hong Meiling awoke to klanking at the gate, which had finally broken open after enough metal blades to it. Reimu dashed out.

"Ah... Ah! She's escaping!" Meiling ran towards the escapee, going far faster than her. With one quick dive, she quickly caught up to Reimu.

"Kyaaaaah!"

\- End flashback.

* * *

' _I should have thought of a better plan in hindsight._ '

"I-I'm feeling quite generous today, v-vermin…" Remilia stuttered out, teeth chattering.

Reimu decided not to reply; she didn't want a knife to her everything.

"I'm n-not going to be the one to…p-punish you...Patchy, the fire!"

The flaming fragments of the dining table were beginning to go out. Patchouli looked up from her book in her chair beside Remilia, and put up a hand. She levitated some pieces of the dining table onto the fire, then used her magic to strengthen the fire.

Remilia sneezed. "As I-I was saying…"

The door to the dining room slammed open. The Reimu doppelganger stepped in, along with Marisa and Alice, her doll Shanghai in tow.

"So that's the clone, huh…? I don't know who she's fooling with that brown and white getup though…" Alice observed, a hand to her chin.

Shanghai floated up to Reimu, poking her in the cheek.

"Brown? That's strange…" Marisa put her hand to her chin aswell.

Remilia turned to her guests, shivering.

Marisa scratched the back of her head. "Eh-heeh... What happened here, ze?"

"G-get that fake Reimu out of here, now!" Remilia was pissed, sniffling as snot threatened to leak from her nose.

The Reimu doppelganger made her way to Reimu. "Oh, I know exactly where to take her this time. Rest assured, I'll see to it to execute her properly."

Remilia raised a brow at Reimu's speech. "Don't y-you mean...Achoo!" Remilia sneezed.

"Let's get you to bed, Mistress."

"T-that would be for the best…" Remilia nodded, with Sakuya lifting her up to carry her away.

Patchouli stared at the Reimu doppelganger for a long time, before departing aswell. "I take it you three can handle this. I'll be in my study."

Marisa finally finished Remilia's comment from earlier. "Execute? Is that fancy wording for exorcism, or what, ze?"

The doppelganger's eyes widened subtly, but returned to normal quickly. "Ah, yes, of course. Must be my nerves."

Marisa's face grew concerned for a moment, but she shrugged it off. "I guess it'd figure, dealing with a clone of yourself, ze."

Alice said no words during this exchange, opting idly glance between the two.

The doppelganger turned to Reimu. "You two take care of any damage control here, and perhaps ask about what went down. I'll be taking this youkai somewhere discreet to exorcise her."

"Alright, ze!"

With one quick swipe to the side of the head, Reimu was out like a light.

* * *

' _Uuugh… what happened…?_ '

Reimu looked around. She tried moving her limbs to find herself still tied to that gods-forsaken chair. Once her vision focused, she saw many rocks and flames about her.

"What the hell!?" Reimu shouted out.

"Oh goodie, you're awake." Wily commented, still in Doppelganger Reimu form. "I must say, you have an easy life, Miko."

Reimu glared, but Wily couldn't see it. "Do I now?"

"Indeed! Lazing about all day, I almost envy you!...well, not right now I don't!" Wily comments, laughing to himself.

Reimu sighed.

"Oh, by the way, according to various sources, this place actually is hell! Hahaha!" Wily laughed, again.

"Oh, fantastic." Reimu felt her anger boiling.

"I was told there was a certain palace nearby that could use fuel; I'm going to be asking them to use you! You see, you also seem to hold a certain position of power in this realm, so I'm certain the occupants won't hesitate to comply!" Wily explained, giddy with glee.

Reimu didn't comment. ' _This might actually work out in my favor._ '

Nearing the palace, Wily dropped Reimu, whose chair landed upright. Wily landed behind her and grabbed the back of the chair, walked around it, and began dragging it along.

The walk into the palace was wordless as Reimu simply smirked, while Wily smirked aswell.

Wily called out into the palace. "Satori! I've got a troublesome youkai for you!"

A door flew open, as Satori Komeji walked out, followed by Orin Kaenbyou, her pet nekomata.

"Oh, hello Reimu. What might-" Satori stopped mid sentence, narrowing her eyes.

After a moment of silence, Doppelganger Reimu continued. "I've got a troublesome youkai here who I feel is only fit to be burned within that furnace of yours… it is in your possession, wasn't it?"

Satori whispered to Orin, who widened her eyes, but nodded. Orin leapt across the room behind the two. Satori drifted down infront of the doppelganger.

"...You're not the real Reimu Hakurei." Satori said to Wily.

Wily glared. "You watch your tongue, youkai. How can you confirm this? You'd have to read minds to reach such a foolish accusation!"

The following silence was awkwardly filled with the barely contained giggling of Reimu and Orin, and the smirk of Satori.

"...What's so funny? I am the Hakurei Miko!" Wily yelled in frustration.

Satori's smirk held. "I see someone forgot to do their research. Isn't that right… doctor?"

Wily's eyes widened. He let go of the chair, letting it fall back first onto the floor, Reimu lifting her head so she didn't take the impact.

"You… how!? That's impossible!"

Orin reached to grapple Wily, who failed to put up any resistance until it was too late.

"Let go of me, you foul beast! Unhand me this instant!"

Satori walked over to Wily. "You know that thing you said about reading minds?"

Wily blanched disbelievingly. "Pftah, don't think for an instant I'd believe that garbage! You had connections!"

Satori leaned in towards Wily. "Your full name is Doctor Albert W. Wily. You came to Gensokyo seeking a new domain to reside over and gather resources to combat a fighting robot named Mega Man with, utilizing your new cloning blaster. You've tried unsuccessfully to dest-"

"I've heard enough! This isn't possible!" Wily shouted exasperatedly.

"I think I've heard enough aswell. Restrain him, Orin. We're reaching out about this."

Orin pushed Wily. "Move it, buster!"

Wily smiled wickedly, and yelled. "Oh, the heat! Heat!"

Orin laughed. "Now's not the time to play the old man card, pops! Infact, go ahead and keel over already! I'd love that! Please do!"

Satori prepared herself. "Orin, he's calling for someone. Don't get caught off guard."

Wily began to get irritated. "Heat, get yourself down here this instant! I've had enough of this mind-reading freak!"

Satori flinched, then glared, ready to fire at Wily, when suddenly a pillar of flame shot up from the floor between Wily and Satori.

Satori's eyes widened, then she rushed over to untie Reimu.

"Raaaaaahhhh!" As the pillar faded, the yelling figure of Heat Miko appeared; the white of the shrine maiden outfit replaced by red and the hem colored a bright yellow.

Reimu stood as Satori threw the rest of the ropes aside. Mentally preparing herself, she tossed a sawblade at Heat Miko…

...only for it to get flung away as Heat Miko yelled again, her fury unleashed as a billowing fire erupted around her, knocking away the sawblade and a few shots Satori tried to pepper her with.

Satori grasped her head. "That yell… so loud…"

Orin restrained Wily harder, only to regret it as her clothes began to burn. "Yeach! Fire, fire, fire! I shoulda wore my flame-retardant dress toda~y!"

Wily elbowed Orin and then stomped on her shoe, forcing her to let go. Heat Miko charged at her and punched her in the gut.

"Raaaahhhh!" A torrent of flames launched a defeated Orin into the wall.

"Orin!" Satori feebly grasped forward, before collapsing, the mental impact of the yells too much for her.

"Tch…" Reimu took a step back. ' _This isn't looking good!...again!_ '

"Alright, Flame Miko! Invade the reactor, and claim it for our cause!" Wily instructed the Flame Miko, who then charged deeper in the the palace.

"Not so fast!" Reimu ran after the Heat Miko.

Wily smirked. "That annoying brat's going to burn!... Meanwhile…" Wily went to pick up Satori and Orin. Placing them on the chair, he carried them away.

* * *

HEAT MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Reimu was falling through the Hell of Blazing Fires with her Bubble Miko suit on, a protective bubble of water around her shielding her from the insane heat.

Falling quickly, she dove forward using a bubble to propell herself. She landed in an entrance to the nuclear reactor at the bottom. The door slammed shut behind her, as if expecting her. She heard the echoes of other doors slamming over the sound of the crackling of the immense fire outside the entrance.

As Reimu took a step forward, huge pillars of flame jutted out of the floor, causing her to flinch back. Taking the same step forward, the flames shot out again… in the same exact manner. Repeating this process, Reimu memorized the path created by the pillars and traversed them, the pillars shooting out every step of the way.

' _Why even bother if it's going to be that easy…?_ '

Reimu ran down the following corridor. Various mechanization came from ahead; they looked like little cleaning bots, but when Reimu approached them they shot out like springs and tried to clock her a good one from under her chin. Flipping backwards, Reimu sends a series of bubbles after them, causing them to short circuit and shut down for good.

Fire began storming down the other end of the hallway, forcing Reimu to dash forward. Reaching the end of the corridor, the door shut behind her, trapping the fire shooting down the corridor.

' _How does this place even work!?_ '

Reimu was in another corridor, with more of those little cleaning bot doohickies.

' _Not doing this again._ '

Reimu looked to the left and saw a service vent. Kicking it repeatedly yielded no results. Switching to her Metal Miko outfit, she tossed blades at it until it broke open. Crawling through, she came to an identical metal hallway with another service vent on the left, with fire rushing through it every so often. Reimu broke that one open, and made sure to nail the gate on the other side of it too. Fire rushed through.

Reimu hastily crawled through; although with her timing she was in little danger to begin with. The bots from the previous room started to progress into the vent only to get swept away by the fire.

The room Reimu was in now was a large box smashing room. Various wooden boxes were brought in by hooks from all edges of the room, and due to conflicting paths many smashed into eachother and broke outright, falling downwards into a deep, dark pit…

' _What the hell is this room._ '

There was a doorway behind her sealed shut, and an opened doorway on the other end of the room, over the bottomless pit. To her right was a ladder, leading up to a small catwalk near one of the box chutes.

"Oh, no." Reimu said aloud to nobody in particular.

After climbing the ladder, Reimu walked to the edge of the catwalk. A box slowly slid out of the chute, upon a hook. Reimu leapt with a "hup", landing on the box which swung lightly, but Reimu held onto the rope. A other hook passed by with no box, receding into a chute above for exiting hooks. Leaping to that, she then leaped to a box.

"Wah!?" The box began to fall from the hook! Reimu quickly leapt from the falling box to the platform that left the room.

' _Whoever made this room deserves to burn in this reactor!_ ' Reimu decided as she continued into a long hallway similar to the ones before, with service vents to her left and right.

As she stepped forward, a huge flame bellowed from the floor suddenly. Despite her distance, the very display caused Reimu to leap back as Flame Miko stepped out of the fire.

"Can you feel the fire!? Can you see those villages burn!?" With a wicked grin on her face, Heat Miko began marching towards Reimu slowly.

Reimu panicked, quickly tossing blades at the vent to her left so she could dive through it.

"From the depths of hell I call your name! Reimu Hakurei! Can you feel the heat!?"

Reimu dove back away from the vent as flames shot out of it and peirced the other wall of the hallway. The flames suddenly went out, and Reimu rose to her feet and began running down the hallway to the open door on the other end.

"The countless slain scream out in searing pain…" Heat Miko crawled from the open vent. "Their souls and their ashes is all that remains…"

Reimu runs through the door as it shuts behind her abruptly. Reimu hears the muffled yells and exclamations of Heat Miko as flames wash through the entire hallway on the opposite side of the door.

' _I really am in hell. Dang._ ' Reimu concluded. She could hear Heat Miko clawing at the door like a maniac.

Reimu ran forward to the other end of the hallway, where at the end she found herself in the central room of the entire nuclear reactor. Below was a large pit acting as the doorway to the core, a large sun.

Utsuho Reiuji, the resident hell raven, saw Reimu. "Hello, Reimu! Is it you who's messing with the reactor? We can't have that!"

Reimu shook her head. "It's not me, it's-"

Reimu widened her eyes as she heard the door behind her open. Running out of the way, she dived just as flames scorched the back of her dress. Utsuho was caught directly in the hallway-shaped line of searing flames.

Reimu got up and dusted herself off.

"Forged from flame, and crimson stone, in Gensokyo's hell I'm not alone…" Heat Miko continued. "...I can hear them, the voices." Heat Miko walked from the hallway as the flames died out hastily.

Utsuho simply floated there, completely unfazed by the line of flame that struck her, her clothes slightly charred and dusty.

"They're all screaming… in searing, burning, blazing pain…" Heat Miko put a hand to her face.

Reimu yelled to Utsuho. "You can control nuclear whatever right!? She's trying to roast me, can you extinguish her flames? Or something? Don't hold back; if she dies it doesn't matter!"

Utsuho raised a brow. "Unyu? Alright then!"

"I've made them the promise… that Hakurei Reimu dies! Can you feel the heat!?" Posing and yelling, a torrent of flames engulfs the Heat Miko as she leaps at Reimu.

Reimu runs under her and tosses a blade upward, which outright melts before even making contact, and plops back to the floor.

"Now die, Hakurei Reimu!" Heat Miko tried to engulf the entire room in fire, only to be prevented; all she managed was to double the inferno engulfing her, appearing as a ball of flame.

"Rrrraaaahhh!" Yelling out, the room grows noticeably hotter- even though it seemed impossible.

Reimu looked down instinctively, seeing the floor grow redder as flames circled her. Rolling forward, Reimu dodged a pillar of flame. Reimu began running around in a circle to avoid pillars of flame. She had to break her pattern when Heat Miko soared past her, blazing.

"From the depths of hell, I call your name! Hakurei! Reeeeimu!"

Utsuho was trembling from where she floating. "Unyu! So much power!..."

Reimu tossed more blades, ineffectively.

"Can you feel my heat…?" Heat Miko asked, walking towards Reimu slowly as she tossed more blades.

"The time has come for the world to burn. This time you're all gonna learn." Heat Miko says as she catches two blades, heats them up, and tosses them back. Reimu barely dodges as one grazes her hair. The searing heat causes her sweat to evaporate into steam.

Reimu slowly gets up from the floor as Heat Miko draws nearer. Reimu crawls back feebly, then realizes something.

' _I'm freaking stupid._ '

Switching to her Bubble Miko gear, she engulfs herself in a bubble. Flames from various pillars around the room clash against it and do little to harm the bubble.

"Hah!" Reimu laughs out hoarsely, her throat dry.

"Oh, you're not escaping the heat that easily, little brat…" Heat Miko smirked.

'Brace for it!' Reimu mentally braced herself

"Apocalyptic meltdown."

Utsuho's eyes widened. "The reactor!"

The room was filled with a blinding light as the energy from the reactor flowed out into the room, engulfing it entirely. Moments later, it was all under control again as Utsuho struggled to contain the Reactor's energy.

Reimu's bubble was barely stable by this point and popped once Reimu realized things were under control. She quickly dove back when a line of flame soared past her face.

"You are the hero!"

Reimu launched bubbles forward, which evaporated when nearing Heat Miko.

"I am the fire!"

Diving forward, Reimu dodged a pillar of flame from under her. Heat Miko leapt over her and landed to her right.

"This is the meltdown!"

Reimu tosses two more bubbles which make contact with Heat Miko, who stumbles backwards. The entire temperature of the room drops noticably, as Utsuho regains total control of the reactor and even manages to shut the door to it. "It's all good now!"

Reimu tosses more bubbles, which evaporate as they near Heat Miko once more.

"Of your desire!"

Reimu dives forward, narrowly escaping a torrent of flame, her flippers on her Bubble Miko outfit getting vaporized in the process.

"Your fight for 'justice' burns to ashes, Hakurei Reimu!"

Heat Miko's flames fall as she runs at Reimu, allowing her to toss a decisive bubble at her which strikes her dead-on. Flying forward limply, Heat Miko gets a kick to the torso by Reimu, causing her to collapse to the floor. Reimu tosses bubble after bubble on her.

"Agh! Oouuch! N-no! Sto-aaaggh!"

Heat Miko shouts from the floor in pain as she attempts to summon even the lightest candle's worth of fire but only produces slight heat.

"From the depths of hell I call your name, Heat Miko. And guess what?"

"Wha...Whaaat!?" Heat Miko yells from the floor, her heat rising once more as she begins to rise from the floor.

"Hell just froze over." Reimu dropped the last bubble on Heat Miko.

"Hsss-aaauuuuuggh!" Heat Miko hisses in agony as she writhes on the floor, evaporating into flames slowly as he limbs begin to deteriorate to flames. As the deterioration reaches her core…

Heat Miko explodes into a brilliant light like the other Miko clones.

Reimu sits down. 'It's over... '

Utsuho floats down to her as the core door opens. The heat in the room rises again, but Reimu doesn't mind.

Utsuho pouts. "Where'd that grey one go~? Oh well… You, stop messing with my reactor already! It's not funny, unyu!" Utsuho yells at Reimu.

Reimu raises a brown, and looks down at her clothes, which were now Heat Miko's red and yellow shrine maiden gear.

' _I guess I feel the fire, but I sure don't want to see any villages burn any time soon._ '

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 110000

Defeated REMILIA SCARLET: 1000

Defeated HEAT MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 8000

Soaking things: 10000

* * *

Nodding, Reimu turns to Utsuho. "No problem, I'll be on my way."

"Let me show you out! This place is kinda big at times!"

* * *

Floating upward through the large shaft, Reimu finally reached the ceiling

' _Where did that bird even lead me?_ ' Reimu sighed as she flipped open a hatch at the top and climbed out. As she clambered out of the hole, she took a look at the sign next to it.

"Underground Geyser Testing center. Property of the Moriya Shrine. Huhhh…" Reimu folded her arms in annoyance.

"It's a little too early for crazy conspiracies, wouldn't you suppose?" Reimu said to nobody in particular as she walked off towards the vague location of her shrine, the sun beginning to rise.

* * *

Reimu began to limp as she held her right rib, now making her way towards Eientei, the sun beginning to set after an uneventful day of walking. Reimu tried many things, between making a car out of duct-tape-esque ofuda and sawblades and trying to roll around on bubbles, she didn't manage to get where she was much sooner than she did.

' _If only I still had flight outside of whatever facilities I defeated those clones in…_ ' Reimu winced with every step.

' _I guess all that activity caught up to me…_ '

Reimu couldn't fly so navigating her way to Eientei should have been hard, except…

Kaboom!

"Yeeeeoooowwww!" came the yell of one of the immortals who were currently quarreling, presumably near Eientei.

Reimu smirked, only for it to fade as the pain continued as she limped towards the commotion.

* * *

Night was young as Reimu stumbled through the front door to Eientei, the two immortals caught in a grapple outside.

Reisen Udonge Inaba stood at a desk, packing some things into a box. "Oh, he-"

She paused, taking in Reimu's grey getup complete with charred flippers, goggles, and a snorkel. Reisen paused to rub her eyes.

When Reisen looked back to Reimu, her clothes were now red and yellow and she had no silly snorkel gear on any longer.

"...The doctor's in the other room, I'm out for the night. Sorry." Reisen slumped as she walked away, a tired expression on her face.

Raising a brow, Reimu walked into the room on the right only to find nobody in it. Walking back out and scratching her head, Reimu entered the door on the left, where Eirin Yagokoro stood, rearranging some vials in a case.

"Yes? It's the end of the day, and I'm kind of finishing up he- uhhh…" Eirin trailed off as she saw Reimu looking worse for wear in her Heat Miko outfit.

"Felt like a change in style, Reimu?" Eirin turned away, continuing to re-arrange vials, before closing the case. "There we go…"

"I'm hurt." Reimu replied.

"Use words." Eirin shot back, packing cases of vials into a bag.

"Burns, waterlogging, blade cuts, and blunt trauma."

Eirin looked at Reimu, her eyes running across her body. "Take these." Eirin tossed Reimu a bottle of pills.

Reimu stared at the bottle. "E-pills?"

"E-pills. Keeps you from falling asleep and the likes, might be helpful against danmaku damage or something. Don't take too many or you'll explode. Do not take if operating heavy machinery or magic or… just don't be stupid, honestly."

Reimu tucked the pills into a pocket on her skirt. "Very funny, doctor."

Eirin began walking out of the room, Reimu following behind her. Eirin paused. "I wasn't kidding about the exploding thing- you might want to keep that in mind."

Reimu yawned. "I get it, no more than like two pills every now and then."

Eirin nodded. "Good. We've got beds, by the way, and whatever happened to you, it doesn't look like you're flying any time soon." Eirin paused to look back at Reimu, who happens to have begun wandering off.

Reimu walked further into the hallways of Eientei, away from the doctor who stood there and watched her walk off.

"...I was going to show her to a room. She's going to have one stiff back in the morning…" Eirin trailed off as she left for her quarters.

* * *

Reimu arose to a new dawn and less pain than the night previous! Rolling around in bed, she felt a lump in her skirt. Reaching into her skirt, she took out the pill bottle, narrowing her eyes at it.

"...screw that…" Reimu muttered, tossing the pills across the room. Reaching the other end, they exploded in a similar fashion to when a clone dies, with a brilliant light enveloping the room. When the light faded, there was a hole in the stricken wall.

"..." Reimu wordlessly cozied herself into bed when the door opened and Eirin waltzed in.

"...I suppose they need further testing. Pity, pity, I was looking forward to the effects." Eirin took out a noteboard and scribbled down things.

Kaguya Houraisan ran in behind Eirin. "What even happened here?"

Eirin shook her head. "Bad chemical synergy under intensive pressures, apparently. Tsk tsk tsk, that supplier's gotta be real green to request this disastrous mixture. Money is money, I suppose."

Kaguya stretched. "Ahh… In that case, back to bed."

Not noticing Reimu in the bed, Kaguya began to climb in as Reimu suddenly made a scene.

"wha-Hey hey, woah woah, who invited you!?" Reimu shouted, clinging to the blankets.

"I live here." Kaguya stated, pulling on the blankets.

"But were you invited is the primary concern here…" Reimu narrowed her eyes, and began scratching her chin, other hand tugging the blankets back.

"The day is early, you two. Get up and taste the sunshine, and the likes! Also, get up because I'm going to be tossing some pills on the bed, and it's going to suck. Three… two…" Eirin lifted the bottle.

Reimu practically flew out of bed and leapt out the hole in the wall on the other side of the room.

Kaguya clung to the blanket, rolling into the bed. "Hah! Mine…"

"Three. Apologies, princess, this is for your health and well-being."

* * *

Boom!

"Waaaauuuu!"

Reimu caught her breath just outside Eientei, leaning on a bamboo tree.

' _Well, that woke me up…_ ' Reimu stretched, raising her arms into the air. Now full of energy and vigor, Reimu confidently walked back into the bamboo woods, which got alot darker all of sudden. Unfamiliar, non-indigenous trees surrounded Reimu.

' _Look, I can get lost in this forest alot, but I can't get so lost I'm not even in the same forest anymore!_ ' Reimu looked around awkwardly, but pressed forward.

A loud "fwoosh" sounded from infront of Reimu as she leapt backwards, and from the leaf-covered forest ground infront of her, out sprang a Miko adorned in green and white, who was unfortunately not Sanae Kochiya.

* * *

WOOD MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

"You've come far, you've destroyed many of the others!" Wood Miko raised her arms, leaves blowing off her.

Wood Miko suddenly glared at Reimu. "I'll avenge the deaths of my Miko sisters."

In a sudden gust of wind, the leaves flew up, engulfed Wood Miko, and she vanished.

' _Great, another one of these nutcases…_ ' Reimu scowled as she looked up, seeing blotches of blue sky through the forest canopy as the forest quickly turned from bamboo to oak trees.

Walking through the foilage, Reimu notices the flapping of wings as giant black balls with bat wings slowly descended upon her.

' _What._ '

Tossing metal blades up at them, the black bat things were bisected neatly and fell to the floor with a few crackles.

Reimu ran ahead into a large tree, as some faeries tried their luck and took potshots at Reimu. Reimu blocked the oncoming danmaku with her blades, which she tossed at the faeries. One of them was cut in two, causing the other two to grow irate, although by then Reimu was already well inside the tree.

Reimu saw another pile of leaves. "This is not a joke!" Out leapt Wood Miko!

"Kyaah!? Could you not do that!?" Reimu snapped at Wood Miko.

Wood Miko flexed her not-really-existent muscles. "Understand that I'm different from the Mikos you've seen before…"

Wood Miko tossed three leaves towards Reimu, who guarded with a saw blade, causing one leave to wither as it struck the metal.

"I've been borne from nature and machines of war." Wood Miko lifted her shirt and opened her chest cavity, which opened akin to an automaton versus an actual biological being. Inside were multiple tanks with an E printed on them.

"Oh, no." Reimu started to climb the vines behind her to a hole higher in the tree trunk.

"I am carved from mighty oak!" Wood Miko tossed those E-canisters up, which exploded on impact with the surfaces they hit. Reimu barely made her way out of the trunk onto a bamboo platform, where the tree trunk behind her sealed shut, and the laugh of Wood Miko echoed throughout the woods.

Reimu ran forward, where a large gorilla dropped down infront of her. Reimu took a few nervous steps back, while the gorilla beat its chest and stomped forward.

' _Hope I don't burn the whole forest down!_ '

Reimu adorns her Heat Miko costume, and proceeds to lob a fireball at the gorilla. The gorilla attempts to punch it, only for its hairy arm to be lit on fire. Waving it about, the fire spread, and the gorilla collapsed, the fur and plastic on it melting and revealing the robotic components inside as the engines that brought the mechanization to life uselessly toiled against one another, parts becoming misshapen through excessive heat.

"My domain has robotic ostriches, bats, and bi~g mon-ke~ys!" Wood Miko sang out, swinging in from a vine and causing leaves to shower down over the bamboo platform. Reimu lit herself ablaze, standing in place, allowing the fire to guard her like it did Heat Miko.

The leaves all lunged for Reimu's neck, but all quickly got burnt to ashes as they neared.

Wood Miko scowled. "When the leaves fall, so will you, Reimu Hakurei." The leaves showered the platform again, Wood Miko vanishing and the leaves once again attempting to take Reimu's life, only to be stopped by the intense heat being emitted from Reimu.

Reimu ran forward, the bamboo platform behind her being lit ablaze and collapsing. The tree trunk it was connected to, that Reimu emerged from earlier, was now aflame aswell.

' _Well, I just burned the whole forest down. The bamboo portion will grow back in like, one lunch break anyway._ '

Reimu leapt ahead onto another bamboo platform. Birds flew in carrying bee-hives, and upon dropping them the bees flew out and swarmed Reimu, who promptly changed into her Bubble Miko getup.

Reimu was drowning the bees in bubbles full of water every time a horde came at her. Using a bubble as a platform, Reimu leapt to the tree tops, where more platforms awaited.

"Pfwah~!... wait..." Tewi Inaba poked her head out of a hole on the side of a tree. "I seem to have taken a wrong turn in albuquerque!"

Reimu leapt forward and grabbed Tewi, and tossed her at the bird dropping beehives everywhere.

"Waaahh!"

The bird fell to the floor and promptly exploded, while Tewi landed on her back, dazed.

Wood Miko appeared from a pile of leaves, again.

"That's not getting very surprising anymore." Reimu stared blankly.

"Well, I'll tell you it's going to take more to stop this war than a little rabbit girl! I am a master of the birds and the bees!" To accentuate her point, more birds carrying beehives flew in from above.

"I'd have rather not known that, thank you." Reimu deadpanned, readying her bubbles.

Wood Miko growled, and leapt off the bamboo platform into the forest below.

Reimu ran forward to a door, similar to the ones she's seen before. Running into it, she wound up in a corridor. The door shut behind her, locking out the bees.

"Not the bees! Anything but the bees- oh, hey!"

Reimu forgot about Tewi, but she figured she'd be alright.

Walking forward into the door leading to the large rectangular, wooden room, Reimu mentally prepared herself for the fight ahead.

' _Alright, she has leaves… I have fire… and saws. I think I'm in the clear here._ '

Wood Miko beat her ribcage with her fists. "Carved from mighty oak!" Leaves swirled around her, orbiting her protectively, while some leaves gently floated in from the open ceiling.

Reimu tossed a saw blade at the shield, only for the leaves to actually knock it away. "Huh."

Reimu shot a bubble towards the leaves, which was effortlessly popped.

The leaves that drifted from the ceiling suddenly near the floor, and begin to spin rapidly like blades. Reimu is forced to roll under one then dive back over it to avoid it before it hits the floor and spins out.

"This is because I'm made…" Wood Miko sends her leaf shield forward. Reimu dons her Heat Miko outfit and guards herself with an aura of flames. The leaves made contact with her, giving her light cuts as most were burned away but some penetrated her heat shield.

"Ack… those are some hardy leaves…" Reimu shot a fireball forward, which was blown out by the wind produced by Wood Miko's new leaf shield.

"...from those trees…"

Another salvo of leaves descended, slowly becoming more sharp and deadly as they neared the floor, but Reimu tossed fireballs upwards to stop them before they got out of hand.

"I'll bring you to your knees, Reimu Hakurei!" A leaf shield was tossed, which Reimu avoided by summoning a column of flame under herself to propel herself up and over the leaves.

"And I would…" Wood Miko braced herself as Reimu charged her hands in a hadouken position.

"If I could…" Leaves weakly began to gravitate towards Wood Miko.

"Destroy…" Reimu did the Hadouken motion, shooting a compacted ball of flame to Wood Miko.

"All that's good." Wood Miko's leaf shield didn't spin up in time to stop the ball of flame, which then exploded upon making contact with Wood Miko. Instantly, the bright light explosion occurred; the flames detonating the E-canisters inside her and piercing her exoskeleton which had been carved from mighty oak.

Little was left of Wood Miko, as the non-bamboo forestry began to dissipate and get overtaken by the bamboo brush once more at an alarming rate.

' _Now I know this place is back to normal._ ' Reimu raised her hands up behind her head, stretching.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 154100

Defeated KAGUYA HOURAISAN: 100

Defeated WOOD MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 6000

Soaking things: 8000

Burning things: 10000

* * *

Reimu continued towards the Hakurei shrine, now out of the bamboo woods and on a clear path towards the human village.

' _By now I think I've done enough to stand a chance…_ ' Reimu examined the new green and white clothing she sported. ' _Surely I'm more capable than that old man by this point._ '

Reimu looked at the sky. ' _I wonder what he's doing to my shrine anyway…_ '

* * *

Marisa furrowed her brow. "Y'know Reimu, these past few days have been a little weird, don'cha think, ze?"

'Reimu' was busily walking around the shrine, of which had received a renovation; the red and white design now shifted to a more blue and metalic design and the whole oriental look was gone; the shrine was now literally a blue box with doors. At each end were what appeared to be robotic faeries expanding upon the sides of the shrine.

"What's the matter, Marisa?" 'Reimu' asked, glancing over to her friend questioningly.

"It's just that you seem like you haven't been yourself lately…" Marisa couldn't put her finger on it, but…

'Reimu' appeared annoyed. "How should I be then?"

Marisa rose a brow. "I don't know, something's just off, ze."

"I'm sure the only thing remotely weird here is you. I know we're friends and all, but do you really have to follow me around all the time? Just go stay at your house or something, and stay out of my way."

Marisa's eyes narrowed. "That so?"

'Reimu' glared at her. "Yes, it is! Get lost already!"

Marisa turned, and began to walk away… only to turn around moments later and aim her Mini-Hakkero at 'Reimu'.

"Who the hell are you, ze!?"

'Reimu' appeared shocked for a second, but her face quickly became angry. "Who the hell am I? I'm the great Hakurei Miko, you insolent whelp!" 'Reimu' quickly covered her mouth.

Marisa smirked. "You're not Reimu. Where is she?"

'Reimu' looked away. "Stop being foolish."

Marisa ran up to 'Reimu' and, in one swift motion, lifted her by the collar. "Where. Is. Reimu?"

Robotic faeries swooped in from the sides of the structure being constructed to combat Marisa. Marisa tossed 'Reimu' to the floor, and fired basic Danmaku at the rightmost faeries, causing them to explode.

Marisa ran into the "shrine", both to see what was going on inside and to anger the faux Reimu.

The interior was mostly featureless, a series of metal plates were used to construct the floor, ceiling, and walls. To the left there was a large doorway.

Marisa ran up to the doorway, which was sealed shut. Grinning, she thought of a plan.

Jumping back quickly, she stood on the opposite site of the room. 'Reimu' ran in, and then ran infront of the door.

"You're not welcomed here, ignorant child!" 'Reimu' yelled at Marisa, as robotic faeries swooped in from the entrance.

"Y'know, if you were really Reimu…" Marisa pointed her Mini-Hakkero infront of her.

"This 'danmaku' they speak of will not work on me, child!" Reimu summoned a small energy shield.

Marisa chuckled. "Well for one, you'd know what danmaku was; you freaking invented it, ze! What the hell kind of bootleg doppelganger are you!?"

'Reimu' attempted to glare harder. "Enough nonsense! Give me your best shot, fool! This shield can absorb any and all danmaku-related projectiles and lasers!"

Marisa gave a cocky grin. "Secondly, if you were Reimu, you'd see this coming…"

'Reimu' grinned back. "See what? There is no projectile in the land that Reimu Hakurei has not seen!"

Marisa whispered gently into the mini-hakkero, proceeded to point it at 'Reimu' once more, and…

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

A colossal, rainbow, love-colored laser erupted from the mini-hakkero. 'Reimu' had no time to think as she was engulfed whole by the laser, sent flying through the doorway to her back which proceeded to bear an interestingly non-Reimu shaped hole. The surrounding robotic faeries all were short-circuited from the sheer overflow of magic in the room.

Marisa twirled her mini-hakkero on her finger. "A real Gensokyian, even… would've dodged that."

Marisa proceeded through the non-Reimu shaped hole in the door. The door itself had a huge dent in it from the Master Spark- although it still stood, interestingly enough.

To the right were Satori and Orin, tied to what appeared to be chairs from the Scarlet Devil manor.

"Well then…"

Marisa shifted her gaze to the old man on the floor, whom was shifting in and out of Reimu's likeness.

"What."

* * *

Reimu had thought word would have spread to the village of a doppelganger miko running around, but all she got was comments on her red-yellow color inconsistency.

Reimu was walking up the steps to the shrine, and from even here she could see the giant blue box being built.

' _Well, crap. This sucks._ '

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

Reimu paused, hearing the "vrrrrr" of a Master Spark resounding throughout the shrine grounds.

' _I take it someone's having a really bad day right now…_ '

Reaching the top of the steps, Reimu decided to see what she could manipulate with her Wood Miko clothes on.

Reaching out her hands, a storm of leaves swirled in from the nearby trees, Twirling around her like blades, she now had a protective leaf shield.

' _I could've figured._ '

Walking into the shrine with her shield around her, she paused as robotic faeries leapt out from around the blind spots of the door entrance and leapt at her, only to get shredded by the leaf shield. Oil spattered across the room.

"Thanks. Really appreciated it." Reimu deadpanned, attempting to wipe the oil off her clothes to little avail.

She looked at the Wily shaped hole in the wall, and smirked. She precariously crawled through it, the leaves getting left behind as they struck the metal and got stuck.

Marisa was standing over Wily, poking him with a broom. Every other poke, he shifted back into Reimu's likeness, and back again.

Marisa looked over to see Reimu enter the room. "...I take it you're really Reimu, ze?"

Reimu smiled. "And I take it you've realized the truth by now?"

Marisa looked at Wily. "Yeah. Yeah, I have."

Looking back at Reimu, Marisa looked solemn. "I'm so stupid, ze… I should'ave realized sooner…"

Reimu shook her head. "There wasn't much you could do, it's not your fault."

Marisa kicked Wily lightly, who groaned. "Still…"

Time froze.

Reimu was still able to look around despite the time stop; the world suddenly had a peculiar sheen to it, and everything had the trace of a sparkle being emitted in some way, even things that inherently shouldn't shine.

From behind her, Reimu heard someone crawl into the room. Looking to Marisa's eyes, she could see Marisa looking around aswell.

Coming from just out of the edge of her vision, a pink miko hugged Reimu, gently caressing her features.

' _Wh-whaat!?_ '

Marisa and Reimu's eyes were locked on the pink clone of Reimu as she leaned in to kiss Reimu, only to halt just a few inches from her face. Turning her gaze to Wily, she walked over to him and lifted him up off the floor.

Giving Reimu a sad smile, she then escaped the room with Wily.

Time resumed, the unique sheen dissipating.

Reimu instantly felt where she was touched. "That was… unique."

Marisa blinked for a few moments, before commenting, "I'll say, ze… Hold on hold on, why's there another one of you!?"

Reimu tilted her head. "Perhaps I should explain…"

* * *

Reimu, Satori, Orin, and Marisa all sat around a kotatsu in the cold, metal box that had replaced the Hakurei shrine. The cold winter air lightly caressed their skin as the blue and grey tint of winter was in full force across Gensokyo.

"Let me see some of those new costumes of yours, Reimu!"

Reimu shifted to her Metal Miko costume, tossing metal blades at the wall which embedded themselves on impact.

"So cool, ze!"

Orin's hands slammed down on the table. "This is so~ exciting!"

Reimu shifted herself to her Heat Miko outfit, proceeding fling a ball of fire at the wall, melting some of the metallic plating.

Satori blinked. "You skipped one."

Reimu scowled. "Fine." Reimu changed into her Bubble Miko outfit, donning a snorkel, goggles, and flippers, all blending in with the rather plain grey of the outfit.

Marisa's reaction was instantaneous. "W-whahahaha! That's great, ze!"

Orin chuckled, while Satori merely smiled lightly at the display.

Folding her arms, Reimu changed into her Wood Miko outfit, proceeding to summon the leaf shield. Leaves swarmed in from the doorway.

"I kinda miss my holy abilities, but to be honest I think I'm getting the hang of these new ones." Reimu waved her arm to the right, the leaves flying at the wall and harmlessly smacking against it.

Satori decided to push things along, "We should probably get to work on tracking down that other clone of yours…"

Reimu nodded. "Although, I don't think we're going to be able to compete with those time stopping powers, unless…"

Marisa's face brightened as she had a moment of realization.

"Perfect idea, ze!"

* * *

Reimu had a storm of leaves surrounding Marisa's broom as she sat on the back. Marisa nervously looked to the large ice complex as it came up on the horizon.

Satori and Orin were trailing behind, keeping a lookout for any droves of robotic faeries. They themselves weren't a big threat, but they didn't necessarily want to be seen anywhere they didn't need to be.

' _The last thing we need is for more clones to find us…_ ' Reimu's thoughts trailed off as she saw the large ice complex in the horizon, completely eclipsing the clocktower of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which was presumably behind it somewhere.

Alice floated up to the group from the ground. "I assume an incident is at hand?"

Reimu gave Alice a tired stare. "Gee, I wonder."

Alice smiled. "No need to be rude, now. Besides, what's with your new wardrobe anyhow? Got tired of red?"

"Long story." Reimu ended the conversation.

Suddenly, a barrage of basic danmaku forced the group to momentarily scatter and regroup.

"Hold on tight, ze!"

Marisa sped forward, where regular faeries joined in on the battle and began trying to spray down the witch's broom.

Multiple leaves were lost as they absorbed danmaku particles. "I can only have so many leaves up at once, you know!"

Satori yelled instructions to her pet. "Cut under them, now!"

Orin weaved under a line of faeries and sprayed danmaku upward, taking a few robotic and regular faeries down.

A horde of faeries started to congeal directly between the group and the ice fortress.

"Sure are uppity today, aren't they, ze!?" Marisa yelled out, weaving her way through danmaku as multiple leaves were unfortunately unable to graze with her.

"Magic Sign - Stardust Reverie!"

Marisa sped forward and pierced the enemy line, a series of stars zooming behind her. The faeries were thrown into a state of disarray, and the normal faeries began opening fire on the robotic faeries.

Alice flew by, her dolls covering her from a swarm of five robot faeries that refused to relent from tailing her. Two went down after being sliced by the blades of two respective dolls.

"Dang! I can't shake them!" Alice called out. She was doing rolls and twists to dodge out of the way of danmaku streams.

Reimu dispelled her leaves by throwing them in a random side direction-

"Kyaah!? Do you need glasses, Reimu!?" Orin yelled out, reeling from the leaf storm

-and switched to her Heat Miko outfit, proceeding to throw a few fireballs. One of the fireballs struck the robotic fairy leading the formation tailing Alice, creating a blast eradicating the other two.

Alice zoomed back behind the group as soon as she was clear. "I suppose I should be thankful."

In the chaos between normal and artificial faeries, the team regrouped and continued full-force forward to the ice fortress.

Orin flew to the left of Marisa's broom. "We've almost reached the fortress, guys! All we need to do now is navigate past it to the mansion!"

Satori flew up to the right of Marisa's broom. "Be cautious; something's coming up ahead. Something different."

"We can handle it, ze." Marisa assured the team.

Alice flew above Marisa's broom, hanging back a little. "This has been quite an intriguing incident thus far…"

Suddenly, a huge ice spike erected itself infront of the group.

Satori did a sharp turn to the left, and Orin sharply turned to the right. Alice flew straight up, and Marisa braced herself for impact as she couldn't slow herself at this speed…

...but the impact never came as Reimu tossed a fireball forward, blasting a hole straight through the spike.

Marisa was quick to voice her appreciation. "Nice save, Reimu ze!"

Ahead of them was a panting ice fairy. "Eye'm the strongest!"

Marisa facepalmed. "Oh, no..."

Cirno proudly put her hands to her hips as she floated in place. "This great ice castle shall be my new home! You and the mean miko-lady can't stop me!"

Reimu's brow twitched.

Orin and Satori flew around in the background, keeping a cautious distance.

"Taste this!" Cirno casted a spellcard.

"Ice Sign! Icicle Machinegun!"

Alice zoomed overhead. "Marisa! Do a barrel roll!"

Reimu switched to her Wood Miko outfit, summoning a leaf shield. Cirno, moments later, abruptly opened fire as Marisa barrel-rolled out of the way of the direct stream of icicles coming for them. While Marisa was initially not fast enough to escape the initial hits of the stream, Reimu's leaf-shield deflected shots and sent them flying haphazardly in the opposite direction, missing Cirno completely.

Satori flew underneath the exchange. "Enemy stamina analyzed. Transferring knowledge…"

Reimu and Marisa suddenly knew how tired Cirno was.

"We _really_ needed to know that." Reimu deadpanned before switching to her Heat Miko outfit while Marisa moved in a square pattern to direct the icicle stream.

Satori did another fly-by under the exchange, rolling through the air. "Just being helpful."

Reimu tossed a fireball, which engulfed Cirno with a "blam". Reimu and Marisa instantly knew she could only take a couple more of these hits.

Tossing a few more, two connected with Cirno.

The third fireball was halted suddenly.

"Cold Sign! Perfect Freeze!"

All projectiles on the field were frozen… which was just the single fireball Reimu lobbed. The now iceball proceeded to fly back to its senders.

"Ha! I've got you now!"

Marisa responded by doing a summersault, flying upward as the iceball exploded underneath her. Coming back down, she shot basic star danmaku forward to stagger Cirno.

"Auuhh- no fair! Fight fair!"

"Reimu, now!"

Reimu tossed one last fireball which blasted Cirno head-on.

Pi~chun!

Marisa floated forward, hyped. "Alright! All aircraft report!"

Alice floated in from above. "Don't address us like vehicles!"

Satori floated in from the right again. "I'll be alright, you worry about yourself.

Orin floated in from the left again. "Never fear, Orin's here!"

Reimu had a pressing question "...Where the hell were you guys throughout most of that fight!?"

Satori gave Reimu a blank stare, Orin smiled sheepishly, and Alice simply shrugged.

Reimu rolled her eyes.

* * *

As the group flew over the Scarlet Devil Mansion, they were alarmed by the sight below.

' _Oh, great…_ ' Reimu scowled.

Robotic faeries were pelting the outside with danmaku while Remilia tossed danmaku Gungnirs from the rooftop, sniping faeries into next week.

Satori, Orin, and Alice scattered, all tailing various formations of robotics faeries.

Marisa flew down to ground level, zooming through the gate which appeared to have been already blown open.

"Ramming speed!"

Reimu braced herself for the impact.

* * *

' _I don't get paid enough to do this…_ '

Reimu rose from the floor, rubbing her back. Marisa was out cold ontop of her, with Alice, Satori, Sakuya and Patchouli standing over them, discussing.

"I thought something was off earlier…" Patchouli explained.

"So that's the type of incident we're dealing with…" Alice put her arms behind her head.

Satori looked over to Reimu. "She appears to be up."

Reimu crawled out from under Marisa's stomach, and proceeded to roll Marisa over. Standing up, she dusted herself off when the entire mansion shook.

Patchouli grimaced. "Those blasted siege cannons… Things might be bad if the outer wall falls so readily…"

Reimu switched to her Bubble Miko outfit, and lobbed a bubble at Marisa.

"Huh-wha-I'm up, I'm up!" Marisa sat upright, raising her arms straight up into the air.

Reimu walked up to her and lightly slapped the side of Marisa's face a couple times.

Marisa cringed back. "I'm up, ze! Hold yer horses!"

Patchouli walked up to the two. "While I'm aware you two would be glad to help…" Patchouli braced herself as the mansion shook again. "...there's a more pressing matter that needs to be dealt with."

Sakuya appeared next to Patchouli. "We've got a amatuer time manipulator on our hands, and they've been proving themselves to be an inconvenience to milady."

Orin flew by the opened front door, a volley of danmaku fire and robotic faeries following her.

"Cursed Sprite - Zombie Fairy!"

The robotic faeries flew past the open door again, this time danmaku fire trailing them as a team of zombie faeries tailed them.

Reimu groaned. "I've had enough of faeries for one day, thank you very much…"

Time stopped, the world gaining that immensely shiny sheen and sparkle again; although it only lasted a moment before Sakuya broke out of the stillness, causing the shine itself to shatter and time to resume.

"It has also come to my attention that you're the one needed to best these clones of yours. Come with me." Sakuya grabbed Reimu's shoulder and stopped time.

The world turned grey, and Reimu instantly felt woozy from the transition, dropping to her knees.

"Aghh… Warn me before you do something like that!" Reimu was displeased.

Lifting the miko up, Sakuya began flying towards the ice fortress. "The doppelganger resides in there; we need to wipe it out if we hope to stifle the robot faeries being produced from her fortress, according to Patchouli."

Reimu dizzily looked around, seeing artillery cannons aimed at the cracking exterior wall of the mansion. Meiling was frozen mid-massacre of one of them, and Orin was tailing a robot fairy while being tailed by robot faeries who were being tailed by zombie faeries being tailed by robot faeries. Remilia was still standing in the same position atop the manor, facetanking the shots of the robot faeries.

Reimu shifted her gaze to the ice fortress as they drew closer; it had sat atop the entire Misty Lake.

"What about the mansion?"

Sakuya's expression didn't change "Many capable people are there at the moment; your worry should be of yourself."

Reimu felt her balance return to her as Sakuya floated near an outer platform. Sitting Reimu down, she took one step before slipping on the ice and falling on her bum.

"...Really worried. Legitima-" Sakuya proceeded to step forward and slip aswell, and time returned to normal.

Reimu turned to Sakuya. "You were saying?"

Sakuya got in a sitting position, legs crossed. "Not one word to anyone."

Reimu smiled. "Yeah, I thought so."

* * *

Reimu and Sakuya had departed for the ice fortress and were likely in it by now, Marisa knew.

"Alright guys, let's give 'em hell!" Marisa flew out into the front yard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, followed by Satori and Alice. Orin joined their formation, her zombie faeries splitting up to keep them covered from the oncoming robots.

An explosion resounded, Meiling emerging from it with her clothes in tatters and metal chunks raining down nearby.

A danmaku Gungnir soared into the sky, and fell down, piercing a cannon, which quickly exploded. Other cannons were in a "quo" of sorts, piling up behind eachother in less-focused lanes, presumably waiting for the one ahead to be destroyed before making their go at the wall.

Marisa looked forward and saw more cannons driving in from the ice fortress.

"So many, ze!"

"That's no good…" Alice grimaced, seeing the oncoming waves of cannons.

Patchouli floated out the front door, erecting magical sentries to defend the front door. Multiple robots were gunned down as a result, but the effective radius was fairly short.

Marisa grinned. "Let's get this party started! All-range mode, ze!"

Satori split away before Marisa finished her sentence, aiming for one of the cannons with her basic danmaku. Orin then split off to join her.

Alice flew straight up. "I'll keep you covered! Do something about those cannons!"

Marisa shot down a few passing robots as she lowered to the floor, preparing to begin her reign of terror.

"MASTER SPAAAAARK~!"

An entire line of cannons was quickly no more.

* * *

FLASH MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Sakuya and Reimu slid down an ice slide into a large ice room.

Flash Miko walked in from the door ahead.

"You. Perish, now." Sakuya threw a drove of blades forward.

Flash Miko attempted to stop time; the world becoming shiny. However, she found herself unable to move aswell. Panicking, she sent a barrage of ofuda danmaku forward which intercepted the knives.

Robotic faeries floated in from the slide shaft.

"Tch…" Sakuya beared more knives. "Reimu, you go on ahead and deal with her. I'll catch up later."

Reimu ran after the fleeing Flash Miko; as fast as she could on the icy floor anyway.

Reimu was in a maze of different floors of ice platforms and walls. Donning her Heat Miko outfit, she tossed fireballs at the walls, which melted, allowing her further access into the fortress without flying abilities.

Above her, Flash Miko peeking over the edge of a platform, looking back down wistfully.

"Reimu~?" she called out.

"What." Reimu replied testily.

"I've always admired you..."

Reimu didn't expect praise from a clone of hers. "I'm sorry, what?"

"...and your flawless design! Those curves, the red and white color scheme, the no-nonsense personality! So perfect!"

Reimu gave a nervous stare to her clone. "You okay up there?"

Flash Miko continued to stare down. "Hey, what do you think of my pink dress? The bow?"

Reimu tossed a fireball upward, causing Flash Miko to stumble back.

' _Annoying…_ '

Walking further into the fortress, she still heard Flash Miko gush about her. "Oh, my! Reimu's so powerful! I feel my end is near~!"

Reimu dropped down to what she thought was a lower platform, which actually turned out to be a slide. Infact, it was a series of slides that went deeper and deeper into the fortress.

' _This place is a safety hazard._ '

Reaching the bottom of the slide, she found herself in the embrace of Flash Miko.

"How did you even-" Reimu was interrupted.

"I wonder, if there's a chance... " Flash Miko leaned in towards Reimu's face, as she squrimed away.

"...that I could change your mind?" Flash Miko whispered into Reimu's ear. Reimu finally broke free of her clutch.

"Hentai..." Reimu hugged herself and edged away from Flash Miko.

"Could you join me here?"

Flash Miko looked hopefully at Reimu.

"No."

A cold breeze blew through the ice fortress as neither miko moved a muscle.

"Aahhh~ I see, I just need to give you more time to think!"

Reimu blinked. ' _Still annoying…_ '

Flash Miko leapt away into the hallway ahead, and Reimu ran after her.

A large walker fell from the ceiling ahead. Reimu paused and started lobbing fireballs at it, which ineffectively made contact with the armored unit. Piloting the helm was another robot fairy.

The walker leaped forward as Reimu switched back to the rags of her original red-white outfit.

' _This had better work._ '

Tossing ofuda, the walker's plating began to spark and break apart. After enough strikes, the walker exploded, the fairy robot flying towards Reimu immediately upon release.

Reimu kicked the air infront of her, the fairy flying into her extended leg and nearly impaling itself on her sandal. Reimu tossed two ofuda at it, causing it to explode aswell.

Racing forward, Reimu leaped over gaps and pits, running ahead to the door she'd seen many times before at different clone's bases.

Reimu walked inside, the door shutting behind her. Reimu walked up to the closed door infront of her, and upon hearing speech of some kind, put her ear up to it. Reimu failed to pick up anything from the dense door, so she knocked on it. A gasp came from the other side, and the door shot open, Flash Miko on the other side awaiting Reimu.

"Come on in~! Make yourself at home!"

The room was a large rectangle like the rest of the fight arenas, but the floor was somewhat uneven and had jagged ice blocks sticking out in places, and small pits in others.

Reimu made her way in, and the doors slammed behind her.

"D-don't mind the mess, eheh?"

Reimu glared at Flash Miko. "What's with all these perverted thoughts about me?"

"Well, like... you're somebody, you know?" Flash Miko looked to the left, shifting her legs.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reimu inquired, shifting to her Heat Miko getup in preparation.

"Well… I'm just a clone…" Flash Miko raised her hands towards her face. "What you and my sisters don't know, is that this flash of mine is all for show…"

Reimu saw the intent in Flash Miko's gaze, as her arms lowered in a manner that wasn't entirely friendly, one reaching for something in a pocket. Reimu leapt in the air, when…

Time froze, Reimu suspended in the air. Flash Miko was frozen aswell.

"S-stupid… maid…" Flash Miko uttered, struggling to pull some ofuda out of her pocket and even then only managing to toss them in a straight line slightly aimed towards Reimu, but not enough to hit her from her position in the air.

Time resumed, Reimu falling to the floor unceremoniously.

"There's nothing there, and there's nothing to me..." Flash Miko ran towards Reimu.

Reimu tossed a fireball from the floor which slammed into Flash Miko, slowing her. Reimu then proceeded to leap over her as she struggled to see due to shutting her eyes from the heat.

"I'm empty and I'm hollow!" Flash Miko shouted through the searing pain. Reimu switched to her Wood Miko outfit, summoning a drove of danmaku leaves.

The flames began to go out. "Hey, Reimu… Join my side… and let me stop this moment in time!"

Time froze, Reimu locked in place along with her danmaku leaf-shield.

Flash Miko struggled to pull some ofuda out again, once again letting them out in a lazy, rapid-fire stream, although this time they all struck Reimu, whom was knocked back into a wall.

"You'll be mine forever!" Flash Miko dove for Reimu, who slid to the floor and then slid under her as she collided with the icy wall.

Reimu struggled to her feet, as did Flash Miko. Sporting her Metal Miko costume, Reimu tossed a metal blade which Flash Miko narrowly slid out of the way from.

"This flashy outfit and this flashy stage… I use only to hide..." Flash Miko ran towards Reimu, who tossed another sawblade. Flash Miko tried to weave past it, only to get sliced in her side. She visibly flinched, but made no noise.

"...the fact that I'm lonely…" Flash Miko ducked and slid as Reimu tossed another sawblade, and she leaped up and hugged Reimu.

"...like Reimu Hakurei by my side!"

Reimu struggled, shifting to her Bubble Miko costume as Flash Miko aggressively attempted to kiss her on the lips, only to make contact with the snorkel instead.

Looking irritated, Flash Miko reached for the snorkel, only to get elbowed by Reimu for loosening her grip. Reimu then threw a bubble at her.

"Kyaah!" Flash Miko was knocked off balance and slid to the floor. "S-so cold…"

Reimu walked up to her and switched to her red-white rags again, instantly shivering from the way the cold of the room washed over her skin.

Tossing down ofuda, Flash Miko cried out in pain from the sudden barrage of damage Reimu dealt.

"Aaiigh!" Flash Miko tried to crawl back away, but between the water and the ice, she wasn't going anywhere.

Flash Miko stared up at Reimu, her fearful expression giving way to a hopeful one. Just as Reimu was about to throw the final ofuda at Flash Miko's head...

Time froze again.

"Well… I guess this is our last moment together." Flash Miko smiled.

"I love you, Reimu Hakurei."

The shine had broken again, time resuming. Reimu finished her throw, the impact instantly causing the light explosion to fill the room.

Reimu stared at her hands, before smiling. "I… guess there's nothing wrong with loving myself now and then…"

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 222300

Defeated CIRNO: HIT!+9 (1000)

Defeated FLASH MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 4000

Soaking things: 6000

Burning things: 8000

Weaponizing nature: 10000

Exposed Wily's Ruse: 20000

Completed route to SDM: 200

* * *

Suddenly the place begins melting!

Reimu feel herself start to sink into the floor. "Ehh!?"

The roof collapsed into slush and Reimu was quickly buried under the waves; changing quickly to her Bubble Miko outfit, she used it to quickly dive out of the torrents and back into the air.

Remembering she could fly in any 'conquered zones', Reimu took off and flew through the doors that lead up to the room, and then continued through the collapsing hall. Reimu began flying up a slide shaft as the water from the melting fortress began racing up with her.

Reimu flew past multiple robot faeries who were now patrolling the ways, who got promptly crushed by debris or the water, or both.

Ahead she spotted Sakuya standing atop a walker with the robot fairy pilot beheaded as multiple walkers surrounding her. As he flew by she grabbed Sakuya, as the oncoming wave of water annihilated the walker squadron.

"Ahh…" Sakuya looked back with mild surprise. Reimu was forced to weave through multiple water pillars that shot out of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Nearing the exit, Reimu saw more water from the higher portions of the fortress racing down over the exit; there was soon to be no escape. Thinking fast, Reimu was engulfed in a bright light, as she switched to her new Flash Miko outfit.

Time stopped, the world gaining the unique shine once more as Reimu carried Sakuya out of the fortress safely.

Once outside, Reimu resumed time, and the fortress was seen quickly dissolving.

Reimu floated back towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but her flying slowly began to giveout due to both exiting the domain of the Flash Miko and the fact said domain was in the progress of being destroyed.

Sakuya took over, lazily carrying Reimu due to the battle she'd experienced inside the fortress.

'Well, looks like they took care of things here…'

The entire yard past the exterior wall was a charred wasteland of cannon parts, the limbs of robot faeries, and craters from sparks, explosion, and Gungnirs. Meiling was holding up the parts to the front gate, trying to work out what to do with it. The outer wall was in shambles, but overall nothing really got past it and the inner yard was relatively pristine in contrast, barring the occasional robot fairy gibs.

Remilia sat where she was throwing spears earlier, drinking tea at a picnic blanket with the rest of the team who participated.

Sakuya flew up to them, sitting Reimu down on the blanket, before sitting down herself.

The team stared at the collapsing fortress, as a huge wave rushed in and smashed against the exterior wall, submerged Meiling and washed over the interior yard.

"..." Remilia shook her head and continued drinking her tea.

"Well, today was fun, ze."

Reimu looked over to Marisa. "For you, maybe."

Reimu noticed someone missing.

Satori answered before Reimu could even ask it, "Orin's in a guest bed, she had to fall back after getting shot up by a rather mean swarm of ten mechanical faeries."

Reimu looked away, nodding. "Well, atleast I'm not bored."

Marisa raised a cheer. "Now we're talkin', ze!"

Satori voiced the concern on a few people's minds. "We still need to take care of that mad doctor behind this."

Reimu yawned. "That can wait until tomorrow."

* * *

Reimu arose from her room in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, still in her Flash Miko outfit as she walked out to the dining room.

Most weren't up yet, but Patchouli was apparently, eating some pancakes.

Sakuya appeared, placing some pancakes for Reimu.

' _Remilia's probably asleep right about now…_ '

Reimu glanced around the table, and started to munch on her pancakes.

* * *

Marisa, Satori, Orin, Alice and Reimu flew away from the SDM, with Reimu riding on the back of Marisa's broom.

"The only place I know to go next is that geyser plant from earlier." Reimu explained to the team.

"It couldn't hurt to take a peek." Marisa said, setting course for the underground geyser center. "The place's at the base of Youkai Mountain, right?"

"Mmhmm." Reimu hummed, confirming Marisa's estimations.

Some normal faeries decided to engage the group, but proved to be zero resistance after a couple stray shots at them destroyed all of them.

The rest of the flight was similar.

' _Promising, but a tad boring…_ '

Coming to a halt at the sign, there was now a tall door standing next to the sign.

'That wasn't there before…' Reimu got off the broom and took a good look at the door; it was a rather vibrant yellow but made of metal similar to the construct that was taking place on the shrine grounds. Reimu looked at the sign, which read "Property of Doctor Wily.", scribbled over the previous text mentioning the Moriyas.

Reimu noticed the inconsistency. "Well, we know we found something at the very least."

Marisa floated off her broom and knocked on the door. Suddenly, the ground shook violently as the door was lifted by a large pillar of metal raising into the sky. Reimu and Marisa hopped back onto the broom and everyone fell back as a large tower was rising up from under the ground.

A good hundred meters away, Reimu gave a blank stare as the tower was taking its sweet time to rise. "The tengu are going to be _pissed_."

Marisa whistled. "You know it, too, ze!"

The tower was still rising ten minutes later, with Alice and Marisa using some dolls to play chess, with Orin watching…

"That's not how the knights move, Marisa!"

"What knight jumps around the battlefield like a kangaroo!?" Marisa shot back.

...while Reimu sat in place rapidly cycling through her costumes, and Satori just looked bored. Everyone adjusted to the violent rumbling aswell.

"Halt!" Momiji Inubashiri leaped down from a treetop, landing somewhat sloppily due to the immense vibrations, and pointed her sword at the group before noticing the relaxed state they were in.

"...What gives you the right to loiter on our borders?"

Reimu stopped cycling through outfits. "We were waiting for the tower to rise."

Marisa looked over from her game of chess. "No, we were waiting for Christmas, ze."

Alice looked over aswell. "We were waiting for the spring flowers to bloom and for the snow to melt."

Orin looked over. "What were we waiting for again?"

Satori didn't bother to respond.

Momiji looked confused for a moment, but resumed looking angry moments later. "Well, regardless, I'll have to ask you to-" A doll dressed in knight getup was chucked at her, forcing her to block.

"We're tryin'a play a game here, ze!" Marisa shouted. The knight doll floated back to the wrong place on the board.

"Marisa…"

"Alright, alright…" Marisa floated it back to its proper place.

Momiji leapt for the board, only for a danmaku leaves to wash out infront of her and surprise her, then quickly as she leapt back she was caught by some leaves that floated in behind her and then all of a sudden she was bombarded by the bunch of danmaku leaves, knocking her out.

Satori grinned. "Was that really necessary?"

Reimu grinned back. "No, but you can't deny it had to be done."

The rumbling stopped, causing everyone to be thrown off balance.

The large tower now extended into the clouds, the top so high that nobody could quite ascertain the size of the tower.

"Hoo boy, do we have our work cut out for us, ze…" Marisa adjusted her hat as she stared up into the sky.

"Whaaa~t!?" Orin shouted, staring up with Marisa.

At the bottom of the tower was another door. On the outside of the tower, multiple cannons were mounted, presumably to prevent people from flying up it, considering the geography.

Satori echoed the thoughts of many, including herself, "I think it'd be best if we climbed it manually."

* * *

From atop the tower, locked in a reinforced metal room…

"Alright, you useless mechanization, do what you do best! Prove to me that instilling part of that brat's power into you wasn't a ill-fated effort!" Wily cut the ropes around an orange-white shrine maiden.

From the screen, she saw the figure of a miko rapidly switching the colors of her outfit.

"You see her? Kill her." Wily said in a flat voice, before walking to his teleporter. "I'll be seeing you later, I know!"

The orange and white shrine maiden fires yin-yang pins from her handless, sleeved arms. Wily teleports away before they make contact, the pins flash and the teleporter explodes.

' _No one will know the truth to this story…_ '

* * *

"Fufufu… what interesting incident have I been missing out on all this time?"

The view of a certain miko rapidly switching costumes was certainly a new development. The woman supposed that she should have been a little more attentive, but it wasn't like she didn't welcome this development.

* * *

CRASH MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Reimu hopped from platform to platform within the tower, robot faeries slowly following but getting shot down by Marisa as she hopped along behind Reimu.

Satori, Orin, and Alice opted to watch the entrance when they found out they couldn't fly inside; they'd make sure no unwelcomed guests chased them in from the entrance, or so they said.

Reimu climbed a ladder, Marisa following closely behind.

"To be fair, it is alot of physical effort." Reimu justified the decisions of their team.

"Physical, shmisical. Do you think that satori's ever climbed a ladder in her life?" Marisa shot back.

"Point. Orin's far more fit, but she's not going in without Satori, of course." Reimu threw sawblades at some faeries drifting in from above.

Marisa continued complaining. "I woulda hoped Alice came in with us, but apparently she's squishy aswell- it's just platforming, ze! Platforming!"

Marisa turned around and used her broom like a baseball bat, knocking a robot fairy into the wall, shattering her.

Reimu looked at a moving platform up ahead. "You know, I'm curious- why aren't they attacking?"

"Good question ze…" Marisa scratched the back of her head.

* * *

Running back and forth, Crash Miko ran until she reached a wall and turned around, occasionally firing her pins uselessly at the walls.

' _Gotta get outta this town… Gotta bring that Wily down…_ ' she repetitively thought over and over again, desperately trying to escape her metal, and mental, prison.

A gap was present in the corner of the room, an echoing laugh resounded through the room, but Crash Miko refused to acknowledge it.

* * *

Reimu sat on a platform moving in a convoluted loop, leaves swirling around her- danmaku ones, as no real trees were present. Robot faeries slowly flew into them, and some robot faeries shorted out and clattered to the floor before even doing anything remotely productive.

"This is getting creepy, ze…" Marisa said, watching a robot short out and fall without even reaching her.

Reimu leapt to a ladder, and started climbing up to the upper floor of the tower. From here she saw the sky, and from here she could even see the peak of Youkai Mountain just ahead, and a certain shrine nearby.

Sanae waved her hand at Reimu.

"Hello, Reimu!" Sanae shouted from across the distance between the giant yellow tower and the top of Youkai Mountain.

Reimu awkwardly grinned and waved her hand. ' _How big is this tower!?_ '

Marisa called out to her. "Yo, Sanae! Me and Reimu are just climbing this huge tower! Wanna join us!?"

"Sure! Here I- Waaah!?" Sanae tried floating over, but her flying was negated by the inherent properties of the tower, so she fell.

"...I'm sure she'll be okay, ze…" Marisa nervously said, looking down off the ledge into the huge crevice between the tower and Youkai Mountain.

Reimu sighed. "Let's just keep going…"

Reimu climbed a ladder up to a platform, where a robot fairy with a hardhat was seen hammering a yellow sheet of metal onto it. Seeing Reimu, it started to hammer faster.

Reimu walked up to her casually, and proceeded to punt it off the tower.

Marisa looked off the side of the ladder as she climbed, the fairy seen falling into the pit.

"Yet another claimed by the great Youkai Pit." Marisa deadpanned, continuing up the ladder.

* * *

Crash Miko stood, panting, the nose the only release for air she had, as her mouth had a metal covering to prevent her from speaking. She stared at the screen, the miko on screen punting a robot fairy into an abyss.

' _To break Wily's walls, she'll need my power…_ ' Crash Miko stared at her arms, tips of yin-yang needles present in place of hands.

' _I hope she gets here soon._ '

* * *

Satori fell into a gap at the base of the tower.

"Gah!? Woah, no!" Orin called out, seeing Satori fall into a gap.

Alice sighed. "I'm sure she'll be fine, and considering who woke up, I figure this incident's not too far from over… or so I should hope."

* * *

Reimu climbed up the final ladder and reached the top of the tower, multiple bee stings on her arms.

Marisa was no better for wear, tears in her clothes and a stinger stuck in her hat. "The birds and the bees, ze… not the bees, ze! Anything but the bees, ze!" Marisa started shouting.

"Quiet, Marisa, or they'll hear us!" Reimu yelled, watching Marisa climbed up the ladder herself.

"Who? The robot faeries? Those things are like vegetables at this point!"

"Not them, her." Reimu emphasized the door up ahead that she'd seen many times before.

Robotic faeries walked towards Reimu and Marisa, their arms outstretched. Marisa walked forward and poked one, causing it to tip forward.

"Well, if this is how the opposition is, I wonder how the clone's gonna be…" Reimu questioned, robotic faeries walking into her uselessly.

Marisa ran forward to the door, and a gap opened beside her, Satori being dumped out.

"Oof." went Satori, landing on her rump.

"Oh, hello Satori. How was the weather down there? Was it so bad you wanted to come up here? 'Cause there ain't anything but outer-freakin-space up here!" Marisa irately questioned Satori, flailing her arms upward to point out the fact they were so far beyond the clouds at this point that the stars were glistening.

Satori stood up, dusting her butt off. "Well, apparently a certain gap youkai thought it preferable were I up here."

Reimu walked up to the door, and it opened. Marisa, Reimu, and Satori walked into the hallway ahead, the final door of the tower infront of them. Occasionally they'd hear blasts and vibrations from the room ahead.

"Speaking of which, I hear thoughts…" Satori pointed out, walking up to the door ahead of Reimu and Marisa.

"And I hear explosions!" Marisa provided enthusiastically.

"...gotta get out of this town, gotta take that Wily down…" Satori repeated a few times.

"Someone's got a very articulated mind." Reimu commented, switching to her Wood Miko outfit in preparation.

"Currently, she's just running around attacking the walls and thinking the same two phrases over and over again. It's eerie." Satori provided, moving away from the door.

"I wonder what that old bastard did to her to make her like that…" Marisa said somewhat solemnly.

The door opened, and the Crash Miko stopped in place, her back facing the group.

"... I'll keep a cautious distance behind you two." Satori stoically portrayed her fear.

Marisa and Reimu walked in, Satori walking in a few meters behind as the door slammed right behind her, causing her to jump.

The Crash Miko, turned, her metal legs moving against her will. Reimu and Marisa got a full view of the orange and white miko, her arms ending somewhere under her sleeves and pins beginning, the tips extending out of the sleeve. Her mouth was replaced with a metal plate, her eyes uneven and crazed with streams of tears running down her face, cheeks blushing presumably from the physical exertion.

"Youkai christ on a bike, the hell happened to her!?" Marisa took a few steps back as she saw the mangled form infront of her.

Satori reacted immediately as Crash Miko's arms raised. "Reimu- move!"

Reimu leapt out of the way as pins flew past her and embedded themselves in the wall. Satori ran away from them, as Marisa pointed her mini-hakkero at the Crash Miko.

Reimu summoned a swarm of danmaku leaves and threw them at Crash Miko.

"MASTER SPAAAARK!" Marisa shot her huge Love laser at Crash Miko, who leaped up and out of the way of both the laser and the leaves and shot a series of yin-yang pins at Reimu's feet.

Reimu dodged out of the way and switched her costume to Flash Miko's as the pins exploded and Reimu was thrown back, underestimating their explosion radius.

"Reimu!" Marisa ran towards Crash Miko and swung her broom, hitting her across the back of the head.

Reimu froze time with Flash Miko's ability, the world gaining the shine to it once more.

Reimu threw a series of ofuda forward at Crash Miko, who was stuck in place turning towards Marisa and aiming her pins at her.

Reimu was forced to resume time after throwing just a couple, and Crash Miko reeled backward, focusing her attention to Reimu again.

Reimu switched to her Heat Miko outfit, standing still as flames radiate around her. Crash Miko shot her pins into the fire around Reimu, which exploded immediately from the heat and threw Reimu around.

Marisa shot star danmaku into Crash Miko from directly behind, causing her to whip around and slam Marisa across the side of the head with her fore-arms.

Reimu threw a fireball forward from the floor, the flames scorching Crash Miko's back and engulfing her in flames. Reimu switched to her Metal Miko outfit and shielded herself with a sawblade.

Crash miko whirled to face Reimu and shot a barrage of pins at her, which all bounced off the sawblade and exploded on the floor. Reimu leapt back and tossed it as Crash Miko lunged for her, attempting to impale her with her pin arms.

Chhhh-Claaang!

The sawblade dug into the metal on her mouth, splitting the metal in twain and splitting the stitches around her mouth. The two metal tablet parts clattered to the ground with the blade, and Crash Miko began speaking.

"Kill me! Now! Do it already!" yelled Crash Miko as Reimu ran aside the wall, pins embedding themselves just a few paces behind her.

"Magical Ruin - Deep Ecological Bomb!"

Marisa threw a magical concoction at Crash Miko, who stood there as it exploded. Crash Miko walked out of the explosion, frazzled but not entirely affected.

Satori took this moment to pipe in. "You do realize she makes explosions herself, yes? It only makes sense she'd be immune to blasts and the like…"

Marisa cursed, as Reimu tossed another sawblade into Crash Miko's side, which cut into her but was caught in the middle by a pin, and then shot away as Crash Miko fired the pin away in a random direction.

Reimu switched to the rags of her red-white costume, tossing ofuda into Crash Miko as she ran at her. Crash miko leapt and shot pins straight down, and Reimu leapt over them and Crash Miko landed on them, their blast doing nothing but staggering Crash Miko and then Reimu turned and tossed a barrage of danmaku ofuda into her back, staggering her further.

"Batter up!" Marisa took a swing at Crash Miko, flinging her across the room with her broom.

Reimu walked over to Crash Miko, who was jittering from her slumped position against the wall.

"K-kill… me… A fitting death for me… M-my hands replaced by these accursed Hakurei pins, soiled in their conception..."

Reimu's face faltered for a moment, as Crash Miko's pin-adorned arms raised slowly against her will.

"K-kill me now, Miko! These arms are locked, loaded, ready, armed! Do it already!"

Reimu tossed an ofuda at Crash Miko's face, whose arms actively avoided it as it struck.

A bright flash filled the room as Crash Miko was no more.

"Programmed to fight until the very end… but in the end, her will overcame the program." Satori walked up beside a disturbed Reimu and Marisa, who simply stared at where Crash Miko was.

The group exited the tower and flew out at a slow pace, as the tower behind them suddenly started violently exploding and falling back into the earth.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 266300

Defeated MOMIJI: 1000

Defeated CRASH MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 2000

Soaking things: 4000

Burning things: 6000

Weaponizing nature: 8000

Stopping time: 2000

* * *

Alice and Orin were dashing away from the collapsing ruin and storm of explosions, as Reimu, Marisa, and Satori lowered down over them, flying away with them. A gap opened up infront of them, catching them all as they were fleeing.

* * *

Sanae walked back into her shrine, charred and bruised and covered in robot fairy giblets.

Kanako greeted her as she walked in. "Oh, hello Sanae- what happened to you!?"

Sanae slowly turned to Kanako. "Pain."

* * *

Coming out of the gap, everyone flew and ran respectively into a wall.

"Pffft-hahahaha!" Remilia laughed at the display infront of her, looking up from the dining table.

Yukari Yakumo, youkai of boundaries, leaned out of one of her gaps. "Oh, dear. Not many incidents will be getting solved if you're going to all be like that…"

Reimu clambered up from the floor. "You! Where were you when this all started!?"

Yukari suddenly appeared before Reimu, popping out of a gap and caressing Reimu's chin. "Sleeping, my dear Reimu~." Yukari cooed, as Reimu pulled away.

The rest of the group rose from the floor, rubbing their various aching parts.

"You seem to have done good so far, so keep up the good work!" Yukari provided, slipping away into her gap and vanishing as Reimu reached to grapple her but fell short.

"That gap hag…" Reimu seethed.

"Anyway, what brings you all here?" Remilia asks the group.

"I dunno, we just got gapped here- somewhere safe from the exploding tower, I suppose…" Marisa explains, folding her arms.

"Exploding tower? Sounds like a fun time…" Remilia stated, sinking back into her chair.

Reimu and Marisa elaborated on their experience to those nearby, Patchouli and Sakuya eventually joining the room.

* * *

A few days later...

Reimu sat drinking tea with Marisa in the cold metal room that replaced the Hakurei Shrine. A cool, spring wind blew through the room.

"It's spring!" yelled a certain fairy, who zoomed past the room.

Reimu threw a sawblade out after it, but the fairy was long gone, the blade clattering on the stone path outside the shrine.

"You almost hit me with that!" Kanako Yasaka irately replied from the door, walking in.

' _This better not be about Sanae…_ ' Reimu continued to drink her tea.

Sanae walked in, cleaned up from the other day. "Hey, Reimu!"

' _This is probably about Sanae…_ ' Reimu felt dread fill her as she knew she'd probably have to battle it out.

Kanako sat down at the kotatsu with Reimu and Marisa. "Someone's been messing with the weather, recently. Pushing clouds when they shouldn't be, so forth. It's becoming quite a problem."

Kanako looked between Reimu and Marisa, who continued sipping their tea.

' _Thank goodness I don't need to beat her up right now…_ '

Reimu put down her tea cup and responded, "I think I have an idea… have you seen any strange structures lately?"

Sanae sat down on the other end of the kotatsu, "There was that giant yellow tower you guys were climbing…"

Kanako turned to Reimu, "Oh? You had something to do with that?"

"Hahaha, no we didn't, don't be silly, ze, but we did see it!" Marisa nervously responded, scratching the back of her head.

"But I-" Sanae was interrupted.

"Nope nope nope! Musta been one really hard day!" Marisa shook her head at her while waving a hand.

"I suppose it was…"

Kanako spoke up. "There was this floating structure in the skies far above Gensokyo; when that tower fell the clouds surrounding it were blown away. They're back now, but they're stationary, unlike the other clouds, so you should know where to go."

Reimu clapped her hands. "Well, let's get going then. Marisa, you're flying me."

Marisa stood up. "Already, ze!?"

Reimu turned to her, "As opposed to next winter? No, we get this done now."

"Alright, alright, ze. Sheesh." Marisa got up and got her broom.

"Wait, where are you two going?" Kanako questioned, getting up from the kotatsu herself.

"We're gonna go and shoot that fortress outta the sky, ze!"

Sanae shot up from the kotatsu. "Ooo! Ooo! Can I come with!?"

"Ze!"

"Yaay!" Sanae cheered, getting up to follow Reimu and Marisa.

"Hey, wait a min...ute…"

All three girls were gone, leaving Kanako to herself.

"...Come to think of it, that was probably the most energetic I've ever seen the Hakurei miko. I assume they'll take care of it…" Kanako stared at some of the tea, and decided to take a sip.

* * *

Reimu sat on the back of Marisa's broom, as Marisa took off into the sky. Sanae caught up, quickly, and they flew not too distant from the ground to properly observe the sky for any weird clouds.

"Say, Reimu…" Sanae began.

"Yes?"

"Why aren't you flying yourself? D-did you and Marisa fall in lo-lo-lo-" Sanae was cut-off.

"Just be quiet, Sanae. It's a long story." Reimu calmly said, sporting a glare towards Sanae.

Sanae frowned. "Okay…" Sanae smiled again, "I'm sure it is!"

Reimu tossed a sawblade, which forced Sanae to yelp and duck under it.

Alice floated up to join the group again.

"Ohio, Alice!" Marisa shouted

"Another endeavor today, I take it? Perfect, I've been bored recently, again." Alice flew ahead of the group, before falling back. "Where uh… are we going anyway?"

Marisa clapped her hands, before quickly gripping the broom again. "Good job, Alice! Credit to team!"

Alice flew up to Marisa and slapped her, causing her to barrel-roll away.

"Hey hey hey! Do you guys want me to die, or what!?" Reimu shouted, holding onto Marisa to prevent herself from falling.

Sanae laughed.

Just then, some winged robotic beings from above swooped down, firing pale blue energy orbs at Marisa, who dodged pre-emptively and inadvertantly with her barreling. Reimu threw some sawblades right away, blowing one up.

The second one had a bright pink central bit, and two diamond-shaped wings with two smaller blue diamonds within them that fired the energy orbs.

The second one met its end when Sanae fired some danmaku into one of its wings, destroying it and causing the robot to spiral to the earth.

Looking up, Reimu saw the still cloud.

"I see where we need to go." Reimu pointed at it.

"Alright, ze! Let's get 'em!" Marisa sped off up at the cloud. Sanae and Alice tagged along, following alongside Marisa.

Sakuya suddenly teleported above Marisa, flying with her.

"What might you be doing here?" Alice questioned, floating to Marisa's right.

"My mistress wished for me to come back with tales of grandeur from your next venture, so I decided to tag along directly. It'll just be easier this way." Sakuya replied, floating above Marisa.

To the left was Sanae. "I don't even know where we're going!"

Reimu stared at her blankly. "Of all of the people who tagged along, you were actually there when it was explained!"

"Sorry…" Sanae poked two of her fingers together nervously.

The four flew up- with Reimu on Marisa's broom- and towards the cloud.

They all heard a certain gap youkai's voice. "Good luck."

* * *

The team soared into the skies over Gensokyo, ahead of them numerous clouds moving out of sync with the breeze, moving into their general path towards the stationary cloud.

"Let's break through the enemy fleet!" Marisa shouted, speeding ahead of the team.

"Fleet?" Sanae questioned.

The nearest oddly-moving cloud had a swarm of the diamond-winged creatures moving towards the group. Reimu took this moment to change into her orange-white, Crash Miko reminiscent costume. She threw a barrage of yin-yang pins into the swarm, and as it deviated a multitude of the robots exploded.

Sanae and Alice moved to engage the stragglers.

Marisa continued forward, Sakuya following behind her. Another cloud floated close, which had a large metal block inside it, being held by thrusters. Out of the block came what appeared to be tubby jet fighters- their size was atleast that of the Hakurei shrine.

Marisa shot basic star danmaku at one, causing it to explode anticlimactically.

"...Oh." was all Marisa said.

Sakuya moved forward, flinging a salvo of knives. The rest of the tubby jet fighters exploded in a similar fashion, and from behind the factory came more diamond-winged robots. Sakuya rolled out of the way and continued horizontally, tailed by the three diamond-wings.

"They're on me! I'm getting careless!"

Marisa shot some basic star danmaku to clean up the few robots trailing Sakuya.

Reimu looked ahead disbelieving at the sight, "Can't you stop time to get behind them or something!?"

Sakuya looked back at Reimu, "I was getting careless."

Reimu shook her head. "Too careless to remember your innate abilities!?"

Marisa nudged Reimu with her elbow, "I guess she just didn't have the _time_ to think of it! Wahahaha!"

Reimu facepalmed, while Sakuya glared daggers.

Actually, threw. She threw daggers at Marisa.

"Waah!? You tryina take me down, ze!?"

"Maybe I am." Sakuya coldly replied.

"There's a bogey on my tail!" Sanae flew forward, followed by three more diamond-wings.

"Again?" Reimu questioned, tossing a pin forward, which got caught on the leading machine. It exploded, taking the other two with it.

"Thanks, Reimu. I thought they had me…"

Reimu sighed. "You guys…"

Alice flew forward, being tailed by another three diamond-wings, who were taking potshots at her.

"H-hey! Get away from me, I'm not your friend! Noo!" Alice got struck by one of the blue energy orbs, electricity crackling off her body.

"Yaknow what…" Marisa shot a random barrage of danmaku forward, obliterating the diamond wings but also hitting Alice.

"Auh!...Hey, einstein, I'm on your side!"

"You guys are really good at this." Reimu deadpanned.

Suddenly, three diamond-winged robots were behind Marisa!

"We've got company!" Reimu shouted, as the pale-blue orbs flew past her.

"No problem, ze!" Marisa did a somersault back, essentially doing a loop in the air, placing her behind the diamond-wings. From there, she tossed a few pellets of star danmaku forward, enough to destroy the group.

"And that's how you should take care of it!" Reimu added, as Marisa sped ahead.

"...Meanies…" Sanae said, her hands together at her face.

* * *

Nearing the cloud fortress after a long, robot filled flight, a certain celestial floated in infront of them.

"You! What's the meaning of this fake cloud? I demand answers!" Tenshi Hinanawi yelled, floating infront of the group.

"That's what we're trying to find out, ze!" Marisa shouted back

"Well, regardless…" Tenshi drew her Sword of Hisou. "...I suppose you'll entertain me for awhile!"

Sanae flew straight between the two. "Enemy shield analyzed!"

Tenshi, Reimu, and Marisa stared at her blankly, as an orange bar was created beside Tenshi showing her stamina.

Sanae floated next to it, smiling broadly. "Aah, this make me so~ nostalgic, this was such a great game! I can't wait to get the 3DS remake!…"

Tenshi stood menacingly as she hovered in the air.

Marisa pointed down. "Eheh, you do know there's no ground right?"

Reimu knew to look up, switching to her Flash Miko outfit before the impact, and quickly activates it, the world gaining a shine.

"Hey, Marisa? Look up."

Marisa looks up to see a keystone was a few seconds from turning her into magician-paste.

"Whaa? That's cheap, ze…"

Marisa calmly hovers out of the way, Tenshi's eyes moving with her.

Time resumes, the keystone harmlessly falling past, barreling towards the earth below…

Well, in that case it might not be so harmless…

"That was even cheaper!" Tenshi irately shouted back, her arms now at her sides.

"You were gonna kill me, ze! What else was I supposed to do!? Y'know what..." Marisa aimed her mini-hakkero, as Tenshi stood solidly in the range of it.

"What's that? What could you possibly do to me, human?" Tenshi laughed haughtily, arms now folded under her chest.

' _Uh oh…_ ' Reimu held onto Marisa's waist tightly.

Sakuya teleported up to Tenshi, and whispered advice into her ear. "Do a barrel roll…"

Tenshi turned, but Sakuya was already gone. "What?"

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

She never got the chance to turn back around to face Marisa as the immense technicolor laser blasted her straight into and out of the fake cloud ahead, which was also blown away entirely by the spark, revealing a large sky fortress with a brand new, sizzling hole from which the spark seared through.

The health bar created by one of Sanae's miracles was also shattered, the orange substance inside dissipating- the neon apparently lost to the air, as the bits of it fell to the world below.

Marisa floated back up to her original position, having been blown back by the knockback of her own spark. Reimu held onto her with a frazzled and shell shocked look.

"...That was pretty anticlimactic…" Sanae disappointedly stated, hovering up next to Marisa.

"Don't… do that again…" Reimu was hyperventilating, ears and eyes worn from the color and hum of the laser.

"You'll get used to it, ze!"

"No… no I won't…"

Marisa floated up to the platform infront of the entrance, Reimu desperately hopping off and hugging the platform.

Sakuya and Sanae landed.

"She's traumatized. What have you done?" Sakuya jeered at Marisa.

"I didn't do nothin'! She was like this when I found her, I swear!" Marisa waved her hands, as Reimu got up behind her and whacked her with the back of her hand.

"Aye! Hey hey hey, relax here!" Marisa shouted, walking forward to evade Reimu's assault.

Sanae walked up to the door. "Hey, there's a button here!"

Alice finally landed, dolls behind her making short work of the last of a horde of diamond-winged messes. "Thanks for the help back there, guys."

Marisa raised her hands. "Hey, when the rest of my whole team is incompetent, there's not much I can do if a few of us get shot up at once!"

Alice put her hands at her hips, offended. "Are you telling me I'm incompetent?"

"Well… yeah, but it's not just you…" Marisa awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

Alice scowled, ready to retort, when Sanae walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Relax! Allies were always pretty useless in that game!"

Alice turned to Sanae, ready to chew her out. "Hold on, I am by no means u-" Alice was cut off as Sakuya interjected.

"I suppose I should be the one to ring the doorbell." Sakuya walked up to the button and pressed it.

A faint vibration shook the platform, throwing everyone off balance. Ahead, the door opened, revealing platforms and structures folding out of the box that was the fort.

"Hell of a doorbell. Wish my shrine had one as elegant. Why do my clones get all these convoluted steel bases, and I get this wooden bento box on the side of a hill?" Reimu ranted, arms folded.

"Aww, relax Reimu, atleast it's cozy and warm to the guests!" Marisa put a hand around her shoulder.

"You mean free loaders." Reimu worked her way out of Marisa's grasp and walked inside.

Sanae edged her way between Alice and Sakuya. "Oooh~ they're so cute together!"

Alice and Sakuya stared at her disdainfully, as they continued to walk forward behind Reimu and Marisa.

* * *

AIR MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Despite the seemingly open-ended nature of this fortress, being mostly exposed sky and all that, Reimu and the others thought it was extremely trivial. They thought wrong.

' _Know my pain._ '

"Aww, we can't fly again!? How are we supposed to pull this one off, ze?"

Alice sighed. "This is getting annoying."

Sakuya folded her arms. "This will be annoying."

Sanae flew by them. "What are you guys talking about? I can fly just fine!"

Marisa put her hand to her face. "Nice miracle, ze."

Sanae's face beamed. "Why thank you!"

"Look," Reimu turned to Sanae, "if you're able to fly, can you scout ahead and report back?"

Sanae's face beamed even brighter, if possible. "No problem-o, Reimu! I'll be back in a jiffy!" Sanae flew up at an angle, before she was suddenly pushed back by a strong wind.

"Woaa-oof!" Sanae landed back on the platform, sprawled out over it.

"Good scouting." Sakuya nodded after her helpful comment.

Alice nodded with her. "Agreed."

Reimu looked forward at the next platform floating by horizontally ahead. Reimu got a running start, and leaped over to it.

"Oi! Get over here, you lazy bums!" Reimu shouted back to the team.

"Who're you callin' lazy, lazy!?" Marisa yelled back, doing a flip over to the platform.

Sakuya did a fancy cartwheel to jump transition over to the platform.

"Do you expect me to jump over this gap!?" Alice irately asked, glaring down the gap inbetween platforms. Sanae lifted her by the armpits and carried her over.

"Hey hey hey- I didn't ask for help!"

* * *

A blue and yellow miko sat upon a cloud, her pupil-less eyes glaring at the group from afar.

"You better watch out, guys. Anyone who comes this way, will die…"

She idly sat upon the cloud, lazily lifting a hand. As she did, the flying girl was tossed back to the platform.

"...Ignorant." Pure, unfiltered disdain was the far too familiar emotion washing over her.

* * *

The hovering platform they were upon was suddenly bombarded by robotic faeries coming from below the platform!

Reimu fired a few pins, which, after exploding, destroyed most of them. Marisa let out a spread of star-shaped danmaku, washing over the bulk of the horde and leaving a few stragglers behind who got knives to the foreheads, disabling them.

"This is getting too easy, ze."

A large angry pink platform took its time to float up to the group and glare at them.

Reimu lobbed a sawblade at its eyes, causing it to fall and lock itself on the horizontal plane the team's platform was.

"That's convenient." Reimu stared blankly at how easy that situation was.

"It's like these places are kinda made to be puzzles instead of actually stopping us… I mean all she'd have to do is disable our flying over a pit or something and we'd be a precarious selection of red and yellow condiments, ze…"

Reimu leaps forward to the platform, the team doing their usual flips and tricks and whatnot to get over.

"I give up…" Alice relaxes in Sanae's grip as she carries her across the gap.

Ahead of them were burly looking robot torsos mounted upon cloudy platforms, with propellers underneath, presumably steering and powering the 'cloud'.

Reimu throws a sawblade at one, blowing up the torso but leaving the platform.

"Don't tell me…" Alice began, trailing off.

Reimu leapt to the floating platform; there was really only enough room for her though.

Sanae flew towards it, only for wind to knock her back again. "Ouch ouch ouch... these landings aren't soft you know…!"

Another one of those robots drew near Reimu's platform, and it promptly shot thunder at it, missing.

Reimu threw a pin at it, making it explode moments later. She leapt to the platform as it drew near, and from out of a nearby cloud another one of the thunder toting chariots floated in, tossing lightning at Reimu as she threw a pin at it, which shorted out as the lightning filled it.

A rain of knives destroyed the robot mounting the platform, Sakuya leaping a platform behind Reimu, Marisa waiting behind her, with Alice and Sanae pairing up last. Reimu's platform lead to a new solid one.

'Finally…' Reimu slouched, dropping her posture in comfort.

Sanae carefully carried Alice from platform to platform, while Marisa did large leaps and Sakuya apparently teleported over.

"Too tired to show off fancy flips all the time, ze?" Marisa poked Sakuya with her elbow, who promptly swung a knife at Marisa. Marisa ducked, the slash going between her head and her hat.

"S-slow down, ze!"

Walking forward, Reimu found herself suddenly flung by a strong wind off the platform.

' _Wah!? Crap!_ '

Reimu flailed her arms at the platform, as Sanae flew down to catch her.

"Relax, Reimu! I'm here!" Sanae said, holding Reimu bridal style.

"T-thanks…" Reimu blushes and glares forward, folding her arms.

Sanae promptly drops her unceremoniously upon the platform again.

Reimu rubs her bottom, looking more annoyed now. "Thanks for that."

Sanae gave a bright smile, "Any time, Reimu!"

Sanae ran forward next, a strong wind coming from the right flinging her off.

"Waaugh!?"

Sanae floated back, prepared herself, and tried again.

"Waahhh!?"

Sanae floated back, and Reimu halted her from making another attempt.

Reimu froze time for a moment, but due to Sakuya's immediate presence it immediately shattered.

' _Ah…_ ' Reimu glared at Sakuya, who shrugged.

* * *

' _Do you know what it's like to be built this way…?_ '

The blue and yellow miko was jumping from cloud to cloud, using her arms to create whirlwinds of wind that flung her to her destination. Sometimes she'd accent this with a little bit of floating, but otherwise just let gravity do the work for her.

' _Built only with the power to push others away…?_ '

She watched as the green haired shrine maiden was repeatedly thrown off the platform.

"Insects crawling below do not know… my anger grows." she sat upon the cloud she just landed on, and used the wind to guide it further down the obstacle course.

* * *

Reimu decided to toss a pin into one of the clouds producing air. Upon explosion, the entire cloud went up in flames as the industrial fan inside exploded aswell. It fell to the earth, flaming the way down.

"...Ah." Reimu nodded, spraying a series of pins forward, causing a series of devastating explosions clearing the way, more fans exploding violently.

Up ahead, a powerful wind caused everyone to stagger. Sanae was flung back about a foot or so.

"Waahh!" Sanae yelled, again.

Marisa turned to her, her broom pressed against the floor to get her bearings. "You'd think you'd come to expect that by now, ze!"

Up ahead was a tubby version of Reimu with a large fan comprising her large stomach. "Hnnnnggggh!"

"What." Reimu disdainfully asked, pins readied. "That better not be the clone, or I'm going to be using these pins to gouge my eyes out."

Sakuya tossed knives at it, causing it to explode rather arbitrarily as most of the knives hit the arms and upper torso. "Problem solved, Reimu."

Another tubby Reimu ran forward, immediately eating pins and exploding.

The group leapt up on the platform the tubby Reimus were on, with one standing there expecting them. Sanae dashed forward and kicked the side of it. The tubby Reimu staggered, and fell off into the sky.

"...Look, I don't wanna know, but… what the hell?" Marisa tiredly asked, slouching.

Above them was a blue and yellow Miko sitting upon a cloud. Reimu was the first to notice her, noticing the blue slashes adorning her face, presumably face paint, and featureless, white eyes.

"There's the doppelganger." Reimu pointed at her.

The whole group stopped to stare at her as she stared back, arms folded and gaze unfaltering.

"Death from above."

Reimu furrowed her brows. "What?"

Air Miko leapt off the platform, allowing herself to spiral downward before flipping and summoning a whirlwind. "The annihilation of everyone you know and love!"

A powerful wind threw the team in all states of disarray across the platform, but thankfully no one fell to their doom.

Air Miko landed in the middle, spinning to a stop. "That is why I'm my own biggest fan."

Reimu shot a pin at her, which was just blown away entirely, flying into the sky and exploding.

Air Miko turned to her and would have glared were she not perpetually glaring. She walked over to the Hakurei Miko, air around her disarming numerous barrages of knives, danmaku, and dolls as she grabbed Reimu by the chin and dragged her to the floor, forcing her gaze off the edge of the platform.

"I will destroy these people." she stated firmly, like fact. "I will rain terror down on the general populace. You've no chance to survive, Hakurei."

Marisa ran through the wind and clocked her across the face with her broom; Air Miko was expecting projectiles, not people.

"Get away from her, bitch!"

Air Miko backed away after a firm follow-up kick by Marisa. Air Miko then shot a gust of air blowing Marisa off the platform, but Sanae flew to her rescue quickly.

"Lives on this world I grow tired of. I'll return in full everything that they've owed." Air Miko drifted, menacing but otherwise harmless winds being blown from her body as she used a wind explosion to fling herself away.

"... That'll be problematic." Sakuya folded her arms.

Alice's head shot up slightly in realization. "I've got an idea!"

Reimu shook her head. "Cutting winds. Keyword: cutting."

Alice sighed. "Ahh… Right…No strings, then..."

Ahead was the door to the chamber Air Miko had to be residing in.

"This is no time to be holding back, guys. There's little way we shouldn't be able to handle this." Reimu speaks words of encouragement to her friends, who all give their own varied looks of determination

Marisa grins, Sanae smiles, Alice glares, and Sakuya even has a smile.

They all march into the hallway, the door slamming behind them.

* * *

Reaching the inside, Reimu looked up.

The room was rectangular, the patchwork metal design making it seem open to the air, but still able to restrict people to the rectangular room the fight would take place in. The ceiling was open, however, revealing the open sky.

Air Miko floated down from the ceiling, her eyes closed.

"Up in the sky… Ten miles high…" she began, "a Miko stands above the land… she will _destroy_."

Marisa points her mini-hakkero, as various projectiles are launched by the rest of the group but deflected.

"For if I cannot walk among them... " Air Miko opened her eyes, "I will walk this world _alone_."

Reimu switched to her Wood Miko outfit, summoning a swarm of danmaku leaves around herself; the wind current of such offsetting the wind being put off by the Air Miko.

' _That gives me an idea…_ ' Reimu hurled the leaves forward, the circle nearing Air Miko, except the wind eventually overpowered them, forcing them to dissipate, but they got close.

"Hmmm…" Reimu hummed, summoning another leaf shield.

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

Marisa shot a spark, which Air Miko evaded with ease, grazing the laser.

"There'll be a fire, in the sky!" Whirlwinds circulated around Air Miko. "And your doom… will _rain down_!" Air Miko shouted at the top of her lungs, thrusting her arms forward.

A powerful wall of wind shattered Reimu's leaf shield, but she was left standing. The same couldn't be said of her friends, however, who all got thrown against the wall.

Reimu quickly brought up another leaf shield, running forward as Air Miko dove to the floor.

"I will fly high above Gensokyo... " Air Miko spiraled into the air again after striking the floor, creating a whirlwind of air throwing everyone around.

Sanae grabbed onto Sakuya, bringing her above the mess of wind happening below. Sakuya rained down knives upon Air Miko, who waved her hand briefly, bringing a strong wind across the upper portion of the room, hurling Sanae and Sakuya against a wall, and all the knives back at them. Sakuya teleported herself and Sanae via a time-skip, now tangled together on the floor versus impaled by knives against the wall.

"And I'll rain terror down, on the general populace…" Air Miko send aggressive waves of wind down. Reimu buckled against it and was unaffected as her friends were knocked around further.

"There'll be a tombstone, with the world of Gensokyo engraved on it!"

Air Miko divebombed downward, beelining towards Reimu. As she flew wildly during her dive, the immensely forceful wind waves pressed everyone that wasn't Reimu against a wall of some kind.

Reimu stood in a straining stance, arms extended to retain control of the leaf shield, which was getting slammed by wall after wall of wind.

Finally, Air Miko reached the shield, her wind cutting against the blades of the leaf shield, wind flying off in all directions from the point of impact, violent currents neutralizing the air throughout the room where the intense exchange wasn't present.

"You have a heavy role to bear… Do you think you can carry it?" Air Miko's glare turned into a scowl as she gazed at the Hakurei miko.

"I'll usher in the end upon my thunder chariot!"

Reimu's legs shook as she pressed against an invisible wall, forcing her leaf shield to remain solid as she was threatened to be crushed by the wall of wind.

Sakuya had pinned herself in place with her knives, hugging the side of a wall. Marisa was surfing around the room on her broom, but the projectiles she fired were immediately crushed by the harsh winds. Sanae was unconscious, her body being flailed around the room by the stray wind current. Alice was shielding herself with a mass of dolls, locking her in place.

Reimu grinned. "You know, you call yourself Air Miko, don't you?"

Air Miko's expression didn't change, as she refused to speak, continuing to put pressure on Reimu's leaf shield.

"...Then it's about time you were actually representative of your namesake!"

Reimu allowed herself to be pushed back into the wall, being blown out of her leaf shield by its own force being crushed. The leaves were all smashed against the floor and disintegrated, but Reimu was flying towards the wall.

"Do you know, what it's like to be made this way!?" Air Miko lunged for Reimu, who was ready.

Reimu put her legs between herself and the wall as she flew into it. Leaping over it, she kicked the bottom of Marisa's broom as she flew over and summoned her leaf shield.

Leaves slapped against the sides of Air Miko, clinging to her. "Eah!?"

Wind only came from the unexposed portions, and the leaves became suction-locked against her.

"Wind's strong, but it works over time!" Reimu tackled Air Miko to the floor, focusing on her covered parts. More leaves slapped themselves on Air Miko.

"W-what…" Air Miko struggled against the grapple, but Reimu forced her arms to the floor.

"Wind may take the form of devastating storms…" Reimu began, glaring down at the faltering face of the Air Miko, "...but we ground beings adapt! We work around nature when it threatens to kill us!"

Leaves covered Air Miko, whose consciousness was apparently fading as her eyes became unfocused and began to close. The leaves had covered all but her head now.

"And by the way… apparently I can bear to carry my role! Thanks for the vote of confidence!"

Leaves covered the Air Miko's head, her eyes drifting shut as the final leaves engulfed her face, and the wind, was no more.

Fwoosh!

A large explosion of wind accompanied the bright light, the leaves flying every which way, uselessly ripping apart. Air miko was no longer in the center, apparently having been reduced to her namesake.

Reimu stood, and dusted herself off. "Well, that's that."

Everyone else got up slowly, Sanae being lifted over the shoulder by Sakuya.

Marisa took a few deep breaths. "I-I was gettin' out of breath there, ze…"

Sakuya felt around her clothing. "This was one of my better pairs too…"

Suddenly, everyone was floating as the floor gave way under them, the entire obstacle course falling to the world below.

"...That's not our fault, agreed?" Reimu asked, looking around. Everyone present nodded their heads slowly.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 301400

Defeated TENSHI: HIT+10! (1100)

Defeated AIR MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 500

Soaking things: 2000

Burning things: 4000

Weaponizing nature: 6000

Stopping time: 500

Demolishing things: 10000

* * *

Remilia Scarlet stood atop her clocktower, tossing a series of danmaku Gungnirs at a whole assortment of falling debris. Giant industrial fans were her number one enemy today, threatening to embed themselves into her mansion if she didn't keep an eye out.

"Where... The hell... Are these even coming from!?"

Remilia was pissed, to say the least. She stood glaring, waiting for more debris, when for a good long time, none came.

"I guess that's done with…"

Remilia began to float off the ground, when suddenly the arena for the battle with Air Miko smashed her into the clocktower.

* * *

The group floated straight down to get their bearings, only to find the Air Miko arena embedded where the clock tower should be, and a trail of platforms going from the center of the mansion to the lake.

"U-uhhhmmm…" Sakuya nervously stared at the damage, shivering.

"Well, that was a great adventure, see ya!" Marisa grabbed onto Reimu and Sanae and sped off.

Alice floated there, staring. "Well I've uh… the oven's on burning fire setting. I need to go burn it - I mean, turn it on, I mean, off. Um, have fun…?"

Alice quickly retreated as Sakuya gave her a deadly glare.

* * *

"So when did you get the ability to fly back?" Marisa asked, straddling her broom as they hovered back to the Hakurei Shrine as usual.

"It was after I defeated Air Miko, I suppose she was the one holding that ability."

Marisa hummed thoughtfully, as the two continued to fly towards the Hakurei Shrine's bland metal box design.

Landing, Kanako came out to greet them.

"So how did it go?"

Marisa dumped the unconscious Sanae on the floor. "It went great, ze! Also, take this." Marisa lifted her again and chucked her at Kanako.

"W-what happened to her!?" Kanako hugged Sanae, whose eyes were spiraling.

"Pain." was all Reimu provided as she walked back into the Hakurei Shrine's shiny metal interior.

* * *

Reimu and Marisa sat together, drinking tea with their legs in the kotatsu back at the Hakurei Shrine.

"Well, that was quite a morning…" Marisa gulped down her tea.

"We never did find that balding menace…" Reimu calmly sipped her tea.

Laughter could be heard echoing throughout the Hakurei Shrine. "Fufufu~, I could help you with that…"

Yukari popped out of a gap in the middle of the kotatsu.

Reimu absentmindedly put the teacup back down on the table, where it promptly fell into Yukari's gap as soon as she released it.

Yukari awkwardly peered down into her gap, looking at the teacup falling. "...I know you're tired, but I'll make it worth your while~!"

Reimu scooted away from the kotatsu as Yukari tried to grasp her chin again. "No, thanks. Don't feel like getting molested today, either. Don't make me throw sawblades at you."

Yukari pouted. "No fun… No matter!" Yukari clapped her hands together. "I know where your _last_ clone resides!"

Reimu grabbed Yukari by the collar. "Tell me."

Yukari slipped back into her gap, then appeared in the air to the left of her kotatsu. "Oh, Reimu, you'll find out soon enough if you were to just take a trip to the human village! There should be something interesting going on… why not stop and shop a litt- Yipe!"

Yukari yelped as she ducked, a sawblade passing over her head and into the gap, which then promptly closed as another sawblade soared into the wall behind where the gap once stood.

"Well, atleast it's the last of them…" Marisa helpfully added, standing up and doing stretches

"Hopefully this gives us a lead to where that balding moron's hiding…" Reimu rose from her seat, stretching aswell.

* * *

Leaving the shrine, the two of them decided to walk to the human village.

Reimu looked around at the peaceful scenery. "This is a lot better than mowing down hordes of enemies at the moment, to be certain."

Marisa nodded. "I'm a little tired already, ze. Why don't we stop by a store while in the village or something?"

"Sounds good, pick up some drinks at a restaurant or something…" Reimu continued walking with Marisa.

Suddenly, Rumia appeared from the brush!

"You!" Rumia flew towards Reimu, whom was adorned in her blue-white Air Miko outfit.

"Snack time! You're gonna die this time, fake scary miko!"

Reimu shot a burst of air forward, sending Rumia sky high, and knocking the wind out of her. Rumia fell to the ground harmlessly with an audible thud.

Marisa whistled. "Good job, Rumia! Gave that miko the what-for, ze? Good on you!"

Reimu chuckled.

Approaching the village, Reimu saw a certain white-haired forest hobo keeled over on the side of the road.

Marisa poked her with her broom. "I think the stress finally caught up with her, ze. Maybe it was those cigarettes from the outside world, Patchy always said those were no good for one's health!"

Fujiwara no Mokou shot up from the floor. "Graaahhh!"

"What!?" Marisa leaped back, startled. "It's alive!"

Marisa started beating Mokou with her broom. "Kill it, ze!"

Reimu shot a bubble at Marisa, drenching her and Mokou aswell.

"...Thanks." Mokou parted her hair with her hands.

"...I may have needed that." Marisa wrung her hat dry.

Mokou dried off quickly by igniting herself, then putting it out.

"That's cheating, ze." Marisa was still soggy.

Mokou quickly remembered a reason to be angry. "There's some new big bastard going around the human village down there tryna put me and you outta a job, Reimu! What's more, she looks exactly _freakin'_ like you, it's unbelievable! I thought it was you at first, but you'd not be as eager to get crap done like she is…"

Reimu frowned.

"-I mean not that that's bad or anything, don't get me wrong, but uhm…" Mokou trailed off.

"You point, and I'll shoot." Reimu bargained.

"Aight, deal." Mokou agreed.

Marisa, Reimu, and Mokou continued on the road to the human village.

Marisa turned to Mokou, "When did that doppelganger show up anyway?"

Reimu elaborated on the question, "Yeah, when did she? I was down at the human village earlier and had no news of anybody of the sort; and that was just a day ago…"

"You see, they she appeared in a doorway, boomerangs at her sides…"

Reimu looked at Mokou disbelieving. "Boomerangs. What?"

Mokou put her hands up defensively. "Boomerangs, girl. I couldn't be makin' this stuff up." Mokou continued, "She's got a new name for herself too. She goes by Quick Miko, 'cause she says she's so quick on the draw- and she really is."

"How so?" Reimu was genuinely curious.

"Last time Rumia rolled around, chances are her ancestors'll be wearin' the marks those boomerangs left on her."

Marisa cringed. "Ouch."

Mokou elaborated. "And what's even worse- it all happened in seconds. She jumped, boomerangs flew out, and Rumia was history. They homed too- which surely isn't fair danmaku rules- nor were they danmaku boomerangs. Good thing they're just boomerangs in that instance…"

Reimu put a hand to her chin. "That's probably why Rumia jumped me earlier."

Mokou suddenly looked to Reimu in remembrance. "Oh, yeah- she's expecting you. She's makin' you out to be some kinda monster goin' around killin' her sisters comin' to kill her too. Would you happen to know what she's goin' on about at all, or is she just playin'?"

Reimu nervously scratched the back of her head. "She sounds like a great story teller…"

Marisa awkwardly grinned at Reimu. "Very good story teller, ze…"

Mokou could sense the awkwardness, and decided to let the conversation fizzle there.

They arrived at the entrance to the village, but not a soul was in sight.

"Oh, by the way," Mokou spoke up, "she's got her own headquarters of sorts, and she drove me out for callin' out how she ain't you. Said I was working with the youkai outside the village, and people believed her! Fucking rubbish is what that is! I'll have you kn-"

"Hey, Mokou?" Reimu spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up for a moment."

"No. Fuck you."

Reimu turned to her. "Want me to help you with that?"

Mokou's expression didn't change. "Whatever."

Marisa saw the 'headquarters' in question. "Hey, Mokou, is that it?"

Mokou nodded. "Yeah. I tried breakin' in- it's locked up tighter than Eientei on a good day, and that place's got space distortions out the ass."

Reimu cracked her knuckles. "I've had it up to _here_ with these screaming metal death traps."

It was then, that all the human village was watching; and the crowd saw the Quick Miko, in her pink clothing- although of a lighter hue than the purple-pink Reimu wore in her Flash Miko outfit.

Quick Miko posed, two boomerangs held in each hand.

Seeing the group of three, the Quick Miko fell back into her fortress, a large metal structure protruding from the human village now seen in the full sunlight as the clouds faded from the sky.

"Oh, man, that's trippy, ze…" Marisa squints and blinks, staring at the structure she didn't quite notice before.

"Well, if anything waits for no man, it's going to be someone named Quick Miko. Let's go lynch her." Reimu started running for the door, Marisa and Mokou following her.

* * *

QUICK MIKO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

' _Is what they say true? Does death wear red and white? Can she fall to mere boomerangs and speed!?_ '

Quick Miko hastily ran through her fortress, escaping from the three pursuers.

' _Which one of them is it, anyway!?_ ' From a monitor she had following her, Quick Miko saw a red-white forest hobo, but the miko with her looked exactly like her- and switched colors aswell!

' _I know I can't tell the people that I'll always protect them, but…_ ' Quick Miko clenched her fist.

' _I'll do my very best to thwart those bitches! I'll save the people, and maybe then… I'll be the quickest of all._ '

* * *

Reimu and company all stared down a steep jump.

Reimu found herself able to fly in here; but Marisa and Mokou couldn't.

"Alright, come here…" Reimu lifted the both of them by one arm and proceeded down the drop, and set them down at the bottom… provided, the descension wasn't quite graceful, the three falling halfway down.

Marisa got up, rubbing her bum. "Why, Reimu, why…?"

Reimu glanced at Marisa, "Because you touch yourself at night."

Mokou burst out laughing.

The three descended deeper, and met with some unique enemies.

Reimu stared at the ports on the wall, as jelly-esque tube things flew out, shook around a bit, and shrunk until they vanished.

"Nice security." Reimu commented idly.

"Don't go touchin' it- gives you one hell of a mean zap." Mokou explained, before unleashing a torrent of flames to clear all of the current ones out. "Burns real good, though. Looks tasty, too."

Marisa walked across the scorched metal hallway. "Right, Mokou, don't get back to me on that last one. Actually, I wonder how good of a reagent they'd make…?"

Reimu shook her head. "You guys are freaks."

Pressing forward and awkwardly falling down more gaps, the group encountered robot faeries on walkers.

"These clowns… Let me handle this." Reimu stepped forward, changing to her Heat Miko costume, and tossed a fireball.

Striking one of the walkers directly, it exploded and the fairy inside lunged at Reimu. Reimu grabbed it, twirled it around, and tossed it into the other walker. The other walker shot a laser, which disintegrated the fairy. Reimu switches to her Air Miko outfit, dashing forward on wind and launching the walker into the ceiling, embedding it there.

"How's that ceiling feel? Feel good?" Reimu says to the walker, whose leg twitches and crackles in response.

Mokou clapped. "That was actually impressive. Where'd you go learnin' moves like that?"

Reimu laughed. "Hahah… long story."

They came across another gap, where Mokou stopped Reimu and Marisa. "Okay, guys, we gotta really book it likes bats outta hell when we get down this one. I mean, while this fall won't break my legs like when I tried it solo, we might still get caught by those badass lasers."

"Lasers?" Marisa questioned. "I'm good with lasers!"

"No- seriously," Mokou continued, "It's like your sparks, but from every direction. You've gotta be quick, vigilant, and lucky. If you're not, those lasers will literally kill you guys. I mean, I'll be fine in like a day, like you saw outside, but um… I-I don't wanna explain to Keine why you guys are girl scout cookies, aight!?"

"I'll keep that in mind." Reimu said, grinning, switching to her Flash Miko outfit.

"You guys are going to die." Mokou let Reimu grab her as they awkwardly floated and/or falled down the shaft.

Landing on a platform, Re-

Vrrrr!

The vroom of a spark instantly sounded, and Reimu stopped time. The spark was inches away from the group.

Reimu unfroze Marisa-

"Holy… shit, ze. That's just dirty."

-and then unfroze Mokou.

"...Convenient. Wish I could do this when I did it earlier. Maybe I wouldn't have _fucking died_."

The three hopped down a series of platforms, multiple spark cannons aimed from abstract directions and from mysterious places like mid-platforms or from the depths of horizontal shafts and tubes.

"Either you're supposed to be really quick or really dead by the time you reach the end." Reimu commented, observing the sadistic placement of spark cannons.

The three were forced to jump down a few awkward wall sides and gaps to get past the laser deathtraps, Reimu taking special care not to let the time stopper fail.

By the time they reached the bottom, Reimu couldn't hold it any longer and let time resume.

"I don't know what's ahead, but that's just… we woulda died if ya didn't have that power, y'know?" Mokou stated in amazement of their current situation.

Vrrr! Vrrr-VrrrrVrVrVr-

The three covered their ears as the sounds of many sparks going off at once drowned out all other noise.

* * *

The three were walking down a corridor, when all went dark. Mokou and Reimu lit fires to light the way, and Marisa just lit a magic light.

"Good security. Turning out the lights. Really deterring." Reimu deadpanned, as they continued to walk forward through the darkness.

Sliding down a slide ahead, they heard an alarming sound.

Vrrr!

Reimu quickly switched to her Air Miko costume.

"Grab me! Don't let go!" Reimu shouted as Mokou and Marisa lunged for her. She produced a whirlwind blast behind her, launching her and the others forward, as the spark flew by.

Reimu continued at absurd speeds, Mokou and Marisa launching danmaku backwards to increase their max speed. As they flew forward, all manner of sparks went off and produced deafening noise as they zoomed down a spiraling corridor. Finally, a straight spark coming from the enterance started catching up to the, threatening to engulf them whole.

"There's no way I'm going out, not like this, ze!" Marisa pulled out her mini-hakkero, and pointed it to the spark trailing them.

"MASTER SPAAAAAARK!"

Marisa let loose her trademark oversized kill-everything laser, which halted the progress of the generic yellow spark trailing them, and shot them forward at ludicris speed.

Reimu looked ahead. "Oh, sh-"

* * *

The three were lying in a pile inside the hallway prior to the chamber Quick Miko would reside in. The door shut behind them, muffling the sound of sparks and preventing the large yellow spark from reaching them.

"A-aahh…" Marisa carefully stood up, feeling out her back.

Mokou got up right away. "I've been hit harder."

Reimu got up with the help of the wall, staggering a bit. "These kinds of things better not be regular."

The three prepared to knock on the door…

* * *

Quick Miko stood in the human village, awaiting the group while at the same time not expecting them to exit her abode. Still, she thought she'd give them credit where credit's due- if one of them is supposed to be her nemesis, then only one should emerge alive, and that one would be the quickest of the three.

A gap opened behind Quick Miko.

"What do you want, youkai?"

Yukari peeked out of the gap. "You know... this land was not created to cater to humans."

Quick Miko turned to her in shock. "Who the hell are you to decide, youkai? What business do you have here, or I must ask you to leave. Don't make me ask again; you will regret it."

Yukari smirks. "Fufufu~... Alright, child. Tell me how your frontier justice turns out. I'm intrigued."

Quick Miko turned back around slowly, then whirled around throwing three boomerangs, which paused as they spread, then focused back on Yukari. Yukari simply opened a gap and swallowed them up, then closed the gap.

"Fufufu…"

Yukari was gone, wind blowing ominously.

' _Who was that? No matter, I'll worry about that troublesome youkai later… For now, all I've got to worry about is…_ '

Infront of Quick Miko stood all three assassins: the witch, the miko, and the phoenix.

"W-what…" Quick Miko backed away slowly, terrified by the prospect all three could rival her speed.

The miko is enveloped in a bright light- her costume changing color to blue and white. "Just stand down already. We know your intent and angst and all that crap- just give up."

The witch walked forward, pointing her octagonal box at Quick Miko, "Reach fer the sky, ze…"

The phoenix walked forward, "This time you'll buuurn…"

Quick Miko looked to the village around him, knowing he had an invisible crowd of observers; everyone's eyes were on this moment.

Quick Miko spoke unevenly, "...The moment of truth has arrived."

The other miko raised a brow.

"...Quick on the draw, and in this town…" Quick Miko glared at the Hakurei Miko "...I am the law."

' _I reach for my weapon, and in turn you're reachin' for yours…_ ' Quick Miko reaches for her boomerangs, as the witch raises a hand to the arm holding the octagon, the phoenix lights up, and the Hakurei Miko raises her arms as wind whirls around her.

' _My blood flow slows…_ '

the Hakurei Miko shoots an air blast, but Quick Miko was able to leap over it and rain down boomerangs towards the Witch, who was forced to face her octagon away and guard with her broom, deflecting the boomerangs.

"I'm not scared anymore…"

' _I see the faces of my sisters who have fallen before…_ '

Images of Metal Miko, Bubble Miko, Heat Miko, Wood Miko, Flash Miko, Crash Miko, and finally Air Miko echo through her mind; she never knew them, but that didn't mean they had to die at the hands of this Hakurei Miko…

The phoenix girl lunged for Quick Miko, flying into the air and raining fireballs down. Quick Miko weaved through them all, tossing boomerangs up which knocked the phoenix out of the sky.

The Hakurei Miko was now green and white, sending hordes of leaves her way. "Your speed means nothing if it's death that you're running from!"

Quick Miko did great leaps over the leaf shields coming her way, sending homing boomerangs for the Hakurei Miko but they all bounced off the newly formed shields.

' _My blood flow slows…_ '

"I'm not scared anymore!"

' _This is the moment we have been created for!_ '

"Good for you, ze!" The witch was holding her octagon up again.

"MASTER SPAAAARK!"

She shot a huge laser, but for Quick Miko it was easy to evade- just like her very own halls.

the Hakurei Miko was now orange and white, explosive pins being shot up into the air, and as they fell, explosions rang out across the village.

Leaping high, Quick Miko summoned boomerangs which spread, stopped, and homed onto the Hakurei Miko, staggering her as they thudded loudly against her rib cage.

"Egagh!"

"Reimu!" the witch shouted, shooting star-shaped danmaku at the Quick Miko before dashing to the Hakurei Miko, who apparently had a name.

Every blast resonates through the village.

' _The bullets scream death as they fly…_ '

"What they said is a lie!" Quick Miko shouts, letting loose five boomerangs which picked targets to track.

"What're you even talking about!?" the phoenix shouted, agitated.

Two homed in on the phoenix, vaporizing as they drew near as she prepared for them.

Two went for the witch, who slapped them away with her broom.

The Hakurei Miko grabbed one, and threw it back, but with far less finesse and command over it, the boomerang whirling away uselessly into the distance. She switched her colors to rustic brown colors, tossing metal blades

Quick Miko lobbed boomerangs at the fast moving sawblades, but the boomerangs were sliced clean through, and as she turned to run-

Shink!

Blood dripped from an open cut, the Quick Miko dropping to her knees.

' _My blood flow slows…_

 _I join the ranks of my sisters who have fallen before…_ '

"Haahh… You're too quick on the draw…!" Quick Miko dropped her boomerangs, pointing a finger at the Hakurei Miko.

She walked up with a stern expression on her face, ready to launch the final blade.

Quick Miko dropped to a crawl, and gestured towards the phoenix. "Please… burn this town. There is no law."

She rose a brow, opting to stare at her.

Quick Miko rolled onto her back, vision blurring, staring at the Hakurei Miko.

She could have sworn she saw the Hakurei Miko wearing red and white. "What they say's true… Death does wear red…"

Quick Miko utters her last words. "She can't fall…"

* * *

Reimu never threw the finishing blade.

Quick Miko's eyes drifted shut, her body exploding into the bright yellow light like the rest of the doppelgangers.

Reimu dropped the sawblade, staring at the puddle of blood left in the wake of the clone.

Marisa walked up alongside Reimu. "She didn't seem all that malicious, ze…"

Reimu shrugged. "Hmmm, I guess. She was throwing off the balance of things though, you can't deny that."

Marisa frowned. "Did she have to die for it? You introduced the spellcard system for this very reason, ze…"

Reimu furrowed her brows.

' _How could I forget? I've had to fight with lethal weapons a little too long I guess…_ '

Mokou walked up and stared at the blood puddle. "...She seemed alright, I guess. I dunno. Why're we thinkin' about this anyway?"

Reimu shook her head. "You're right, the last thing we need is to trick ourselves into having a guilty conscience for no reason. I'm heading back to the shrine. You coming with, Marisa?"

Marisa nodded, and they soon departed from the human village, not noticing the hateful atmosphere coming from the buildings- not that they could, nor that it would matter once Yukari performed sufficient cleanup procedures…

* * *

Yukari laughed from within her gap.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 345901

Defeated RUMIA: 1

Defeated QUICK MIKO: 20000

Cutting things: 500

Soaking things: 500

Burning things: 2000

Weaponizing nature: 4000

Stopping time: 500

Demolishing things: 8000

Manhandling the wind: 10000

* * *

Reimu and Marisa sat at the front door, drinking tea. It was a little different due to the unique state the shrine still resided in- being a giant metal box- but it was still somewhere to call home.

"Aahh~ what did I miss?" Suika Ibuki burst through the floor, damaging the metal plates and horribly bending them, as she walked across the metal flooring.

"W-wait, where am I?"

Reimu sighed. "Were you out for like three days or what?"

Suika scratched the back of her head. "Well- maybe. But I'll tell ya what, Reimu, you get to drink from my gourd!"

Reimu changed into her Air Miko outfit, trying to push Suika back with the wind, but it just wasn't strong enough.

"Marisa, help!"

"You're on your own, ze!" Marisa continued to sip her tea, staring in amusement.

Reimu was thus given the trial-by-sake, administered upon her by a tiny oni.

* * *

"W-wha…" Reimu awoke to a splitting headache, the chirping of birds, and many people who weren't there before the gap in her memory.

"Nnngh…"

Reimu stumbled up, taking a look around the shrine grounds, seeing various party-goers unconscious in various states of undress on stone path and lawn.

' _Not like the place can get any worse…_ ' Reimu thought, staring at the bisected blue box.

The box that had replaced the shrine appeared to be cut clean in half.

' _How did that happen!?_ '

Reimu walked forward to examine a collapsed half-ghost girl lying next to the rift in the box, but failed, tripping over a pile of magicians.

Marisa groaned, lying underneath Alice and Patchouli, feeling the net impact. "Oohh… A wizard did it, ze…"

Reimu opted to lie on the ground for awhile more, but her wish was denied.

A sudden torrent of cold water forced Reimu to shoot straight up, flailing her arms, causing her to toss boomerangs haphazardly and sloppily.

"Fufufu…" Yukari appeared from a gap, hanging upside-down.

Reimu held a wide-eyed gaze, which slowly shifted to a glare. Reimu opened her mouth, and no words came out for awhile, but...

"FAAAAAAA-"

* * *

Reimu stood with her arms folded as the residents from the Scarlet Devil Mansion finally departed from the party.

Marisa rubbed an ear. "Geez, you could out scream a mandragora, ze…"

Reimu scowled at the distance, saying nothing.

Kanako floated down with Suwako following.

Kanako scratched her head. "Say, uh… Have you seen Sanae anywhere? She should still be here; we left without her by accident."

Reimu looked back at the shrine. "Try the split, where it got _bisected_." Reimu emphasized the last word with exasperation.

Kanako looks in it. "I don't think she'd be in here, there's nothing but the two split metal ends and some di-"

Sanae shot up from the divide, caked in dirt and mud, the top of a very damaged and nearly bisected kotatsu table sliding off her.

Kanako's eyes fell, while Suwako's jaw dropped. "We'll get you cleaned up…"

"Pain…" Sanae strained to say, stiffly wobbling along.

Marisa struggled to hold back her laughter as Kanako floated by, glaring at her.

As the Moriyas departed, Reimu shook her head. "It's some miracle that girl's not dead yet." Reimu stroked her chin. "Actually, now that I think about it…"

Marisa leapt up, sitting on her broom. "There's no time for that, ze! We still have to kick the bottom of that old guy who tried to body-snatch you, ze!"

Reimu continued to stare into the distance. "But where would we go? Every clue's just lead to the hideout of an individual clone of mine. If anything, he's long gone."

"A~nd that would be where you are wrong!"

Yukari leaned out of a gap, holding onto the edge with her hand and letting the other stretch out freely.

"You see, he's still setting up a base of operations in Gensokyo, as it were…" Yukari explained, brandishing a fan and bringing it to her face.

Reimu looked to Yukari. "And where would we find it?"

Yukari stared at Reimu over the fan, expression unreadable. "You leave that to me. Find two others to go with you; the flight will be treacherous."

Reimu tilted her head. "Why can't you just gap us directly into the base?"

Yukari smiled somewhat lopsidedly. "Well, I know where he _went_ , not what he built or exactly where. Besides, knowing that man, he's made it obvious enough."

Reimu narrowed her eyes. ' _There's no way Yukari hasn't figured out his exact location- but there's no getting her to admit that…_ '

Yukari chuckled through her fan. "Fufufu...wipe that suspicious grin off your face, Reimu, you know you can trust me!"

Reimu's eye twitched. "Nuh-uh. Not happening."

Pouting, Yukari folded her arms. "Oh, phooey. You're no fun…"

Reimu put her hand to her chin. "So, it's somewhere in Gensokyo but you can't tell us where?"

Yukari shrugs. "Besides, have you thought about who you're going to bring yet?"

Reimu grins. "Oh, I already know…"

* * *

At the Moriya Shrine...

Sanae had finally walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed and ready for the day, despite leaving the shrine literally moments prior.

"Good morning, world! Today wi-"

Sanae promptly fell into a gap.

Kanako's voice called out, "Sanae?"

* * *

At a certain doll-maker's home...

Alice sat at a table in her pajamas, pen in one hand and empty sheet of paper in another.

' _It's time to finally write this story I've been holding off so long on…_ ' She raised the pen, ' _This is gonna be a good day!_ '

Alice yelped as her chair and her suddenly descended into a gap.

* * *

Reimu stared at the two who fell out of the gap.

Sanae got up, arms raised. "Yeeaay! More adventures!"

Alice slowly got up, still clad in her pajamas. "Please, no…"

Chuckling, Marisa elbowed Reimu. "Some strike force you've got there, ze…"

Reimu smiled. "They're better than nothing, atleast. Now…" Reimu walked up to the two. "Sanae, what can you do?"

Sanae gestured excitedly but irrelevantly with her hands, "Ooo! I can do the things with the health bar and stuff!"

Reimu turned to Alice, who dusted off her pajamas. "I can observe stuff for one thing, an-" Alice was interrupted.

Reimu patted Alice on the shoulder, "Well, that's one thing you've got most of us don't. Welcome aboard."

Yukari clapper her hands. "So, are we all ready to go?"

Alice shook her head, while the other three nodded.

"Great! I'll be gapping you to that old doctor's air defense space, that's likely the easiest place to locate wherever he's decided to hold himself up. You're going to have to be on the lookout, however. It's not called an air defense zone for no reason." Yukari explained, raising a finger.

"So, without further ado…" Yukari raised a hand. "...Good luck." Waving, a gap opened under the four and they all dropped in.

"...That doctor will learn the balance one way or another…"

* * *

DOCTOR WILY STAGE ONE - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Reimu was in the center of the flying formation, with Sanae to the left, Alice to the right, and Marisa above.

To Alice's right was Shanghai, and to her right was Hourai.

Reimu called out to everyone. "Everybody, report!"

Sanae happily responded, "I'm doing alright!"

Alice irately replied, "I'm still in my pajamas!"

Marisa grinned. "Let's go get 'em, ze!"

Ahead, a decorated group of robotic faeries were present, doing a report aswell.

"Captain Edelweiss here, no problems Commander Caiman, miss!" the leading robot fairy shouted.

Suddenly, a small laser from Marisa blew up one of the accompanying faeries of her squadron.

"Do you repeat!? Emergency maneuvers! Emer-!" The fairy was cut off as a fireball from Reimu destroyed the entire squadron.

"Too late! Game over, ze!" Marisa zoomed by, magical energy trail in her wake.

Reimu scanned the area; they were in a valley surrounded by mountainside, and below them was a mysterious pine forest Reimu didn't recognize.

'Where even is this…?' Reimu asked, before spinning to the side to avoid a barrage of lasers.

Large plates floated out from behind blind spots in the valley, firing huge barrages of lasers at Reimu, but she was able to weave through them. Summoning her leaf shield, she barrel- rolled out of the way as the other three members shot at the disc, causing it to start exploding.

"Holy crap, ze!" Marisa zoomed forward, being tailed by a group of ten diamond-winged fighting robots again.

Reimu sent her barrage of leaves forward, destroying a few of them. Marisa rolled and weaved, but a few energy orbs struck her.

"Y-Yeaoohh! That smarts…!"

Reimu sent another barrage of leaves forward while ducking under one of the aerial defense discs, destroying a few more robots allowing Marisa to do a somersault and finish off the last.

"There we are…" Marisa flew back behind the group, catching her breath.

Reimu took a moment to switch to her Air Miko outfit, spiraling forward.

' _I seem to be able to use more abilities without switching as often…_ ' Reimu noted. ' _I wonder…_ '

Reimu didn't have much time to wonder as two cruisers drove up ahead of the group, firing a barrage of missiles.

Reimu slammed one barrage with a wall of wind, destroying them, and dodged the others.

Marisa flew up and to the right of Reimu.

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

With an audible "Vrrr!" and the searing snapping and melting of metal, an angled Master Spark collided with the two battle cruisers, particles visibly being blown off them as they got annihilated and torn asunder by the giant rainbow love beam.

Five large missiles came up from ahead.

"Look alive, Reimu!" Marisa shouted from behind. Reimu tossed fireballs at one of them until they exploded, while Shanghai and Hourai threw blades at one until it exploded. Sanae shot straight moving danmaku at one until it blew up, leaving two missiles. Reimu flew out of the way of the slow homing missiles, which all proceeded to miss her entirely.

"Aaaahhh!" Sanae yelled at the top of her lungs, getting lightly grazed.

"Sanae… Sanae! You're not dead, ze! Get it together!"

Up ahead, fully decorated organic faeries moved in Reimu's way. One clad in lime green glared at Reimu.

"Under the command of Doctor Wily, I cannot allow you to go any further…" She shot a barrage of rainbow danmaku at Reimu, who stayed in the center; the rainbow danmaku moved in a fast spinning ring with a large gap in the middle.

Reimu tossed fireballs while Sanae gave covering fire.

Pi~chun!

The fairy was no more.

"N-Neon-chan…" the yellow and orange fairy stuttered, before falling back.

"What!? Get back here, you coward!" a red and crimson fairy chased after her friend, who both flew off the battlefield.

"Faeries a strike force does not make." Reimu quipped, various defense discs seen to the sides of her group but not making it within firing range.

Up ahead were large battlecruisers, with turrets mounted on them. Reimu spun out of the way as large piercing beams were shot at her.

"Ashigaru! Suicide Squad!"

Alice brought out a plethora of dolls, which then charged one of the battlecruisers. Exploding on its armored exterior, they eventually did enough damage to it for it to start exploding aswell.

Reimu rolled out of the way as a huge blast enveloped the other nearby battleship, crippling it.

The group saw a skull-shaped fortress up ahead.

"Enemy approaching!" Sanae shouted out, diverting from the group.

"Dang it! We were so close to the fortress aswell, ze!" Marisa held back and flew after Sanae.

From speakers presumably mounted throughout the valley, the team heard Wily's voice. "Hahahah! You fools don't stand a chance against my latest machine! Furthermore, I've fully studied the properties of this pathetic "border" of yours before I even arrived! How did you think I got in!? Hahahah!"

Reimu's eyes stared blankly ahead. ' _I think he just likes to hear himself speak…_ '

Alice prepared a variety of dolls, with Shanghai and Hourai orbiting them defensively.

"Well, I have decided it. This place is no longer of use to me, so I shall blast my way out, and break that pathetic boundary of yours!"

Reimu mentally froze for a moment. ' _This is serious, now…_ '

Marisa yelled disbelieving. "No way, ze! There's no way you could do something like that!"

Alice agreed. "I doubt he's got anywhere near the kind of machinery needed to accomplish something like that."

Wily grumbled through the intercom. "Illiterate brats… Deploy it now!"

Infront of Reimu, a large circular machine teleported in, a large blue light in the center. The entire thing had to have been the size of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

The blue light's glow washing over Reimu, she started to feel a little unprepared.

' _That's… a big machine._ '

"Meet the Boundary Buster! It's an expertly crafted machine tha-"

Opening up, it had three reactor cores inside, orbiting the central light.

"...On cooldown already? Pfttah, what did I hire those freaks for anyway!?" Wily shouted through the intercom. "Oh, is this thing still on? Ba-" The intercom shut off.

Marisa chuckled. "Smooth, ze."

Reimu changed to her Heat Miko outfit, lobbing fireballs at the cores. After they were all down within moments, the light changed to orange while crackling, and the machine let loose a huge array of missiles.

"Enemy shield analyzed…!" Sanae flew above the battle, a trail behind her becoming the health bar.

Reimu spun and weaved, but a few missiles hit her. "Aaauuugh!"

"Hang in there, Reimu!" Marisa flew in next to her.

"Auu! R-really wish I was in more than pajamas for that one…" Alice said, most of her pajamas burned through due to a missile blast.

The large device teleported away, leaving waves of its presence behind. It teleported back in far away from the group, as large metal tentaclaws extended from three edges of it.

"What is this thing!?" Marisa shouted, as it teleported closer again.

Reimu burned through a nearby tentaclaw with her fireballs, while Marisa shot star danmaku at another until it exploded. The last tentaclaw flew up to grab Marisa, but missed by a hair as Marisa erratically darted around in an attempted to weave out of its grasp.

"That thing wants to eat her! And then it'll eat me!" Sanae shouted, firing shots at the armored exterior, uselessly.

The machine teleported away, appearing far away again. Alice was waiting for it, and Hourai cleaved through the metal holding the last tentaclaw.

"There we go, ze!"

Another barrage of missiles were shot as it teleported back, but dolls dashed forward to hug most of the missiles, while others tracked a retreating Alice.

The cores were exposed once more, where Sanae shot down one and Marisa and Reimu focused the other two.

The light on the center flickered, before becoming red. Three more tentaclaws extended out of the same slots, the old metal bands of the previous claws ejected. The machine teleported away, producing robot faeries out of it which slowly hovered towards Reimu and shot at her.

"Get away! I don't want a hug!" Reimu shouted, immediately swarmed.

Marisa spun into the horde of faeries, knocking a few into eachother or down. Reimu switched to her Wood Miko outfit again, producing a leaf shield to cut down most of the oncoming faeries.

A plethora of dolls managed to destroy the tentaclaws, the machine teleporting back quickly for another cooldown.

The machine opened, but no cores were present, the red light slowly glowing brighter and brighter as particles were drawn into it.

"Taste the power of the laser that cuts boundaries!" Wily shouted at the group, shutting the intercom right after.

"I know just what to do…" Marisa drew her mini-hakkero, pointing it at the core. "This better work, ze!"

"MASTER SPAAAAARK!"

"Vrrrr!" The master spark's noise was quickly drowned out however

"VROOOO-VROOOOO-VROOOO..."

The pulsing vroom of the laser vibrated through all the flying girl's bodies, while the love-colored Master Spark was quickly shown to be inferior, in both size and power, to the boundary busting laser.

"Crap! Crap! Crap!" Marisa felt herself being pushed back as the large laser neared her, the spark's power not enough.

"Marisa!" Reimu tried firing at the laser, the core, and the armored bits of the machine, but nothing helped the situation. Sanae fired at the machine aswell, her shots rendered useless. Alice was too far away to reach the machine and do anything.

The large laser eventually overwhelmed the Master Spark, engulfing Marisa.

"No!" Reimu shouted, staring in wide-eyed disbelief.

"Marisaaaa!" Alice shouted, flying as fast as she could.

"Oh, no!" Sanae yelled, freezing in the air.

The cores of the large machine were exposed, and Alice made short work of them with dolls as everyone flew towards Marisa.

Marisa fell from her broom, body charred black on the front from the immense laser. Her broom and mini-hakkero fell in different directions, all spiraling towards the floor.

Sanae caught Marisa, while the other items fell to the floor.

"Hahaha! That's one brat down! Do you see my power now, whelps?" Wily cackled through the intercom.

' _No…_ ' Reimu scowled, glaring at the machine.

Tears ran down her face, as her clothes became the rags of her red-white costume again.

"Die! Die, die die die die!" Reimu yelled, voice cracking, as she sprayed ofuda into the flickering and smoking core of the machine.

Explosions resounded, the machine spiraling backward as the core went dark and the armor began to be blown apart.

"What!? No, that's not possible! You're just a bunch of stupid children! This machine was made to be invincible!" Wily disbelievingly shouted through the intercom.

Sanae flew up to Reimu, holding Marisa's body. "She seems like she'll be okay, but… we probably have to fall back for now."

Reimu and Alice nodded. "Alright, then. Me and Alice will go it forward from here."

Sanae flew off with Marisa. Reimu realized she probably didn't know this area at all as she didn't either.

'It's Sanae, she'll pull her through.' Reimu told herself, as she and Alice continued towards Wily's fortress.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 379001

CLEARED STAGE 1: 20000

Defeated BOUNDARY BUSTER: HIT+50! (5100)

* * *

Piercing Enemy Lines: 5000

Team Downed: 2 (-2000)

Upon one of the peaks of the nearby mountains, the two decorated faeries watched the Boundary Buster explode, a large and audible blast produced as red and orange lighting washed over the land, if only for an instant.

"T-these guys are crazy…" the yellow and orange fairy shivered, staring at the mayhem.

"You know what, I think you might be right about sitting this one out... " the red and crimson fairy said, sitting down.

* * *

DOCTOR WILY MID-BOSS

* * *

Reimu and Alice flew over the fortress.

"Can't_let_you_do_that… Reimu_Hakurei…" a mechanical synthesized voice stuttered out.

"What?" Reimu and Alice whirled around.

Before them floated shoddy mechanical robot-fairy replicas of the infiltration party, including Marisa and Sanae.

The Reimu fairy flew up to Reimu, and tossed a few ofuda. Reimu dodged out of the way, peppering it with Ofuda.

"Marisa_help_me!" it shouted out, before flying up into the air.

"Master_Spark!" the Marisa Doll sounded out, producing a cheap pink laser that Reimu effortlessly grazed.

"Master_Spark!" Another spark was shot by it, which Reimu flew up and over.

"Master_Spark!" Reimu flew under this next one.

"Ma-" Klang! A kick to the face by Reimu sent the Marisa bot spiraling through the air on her broom.

"That's a pretty scary Master Spark there, Marisa." Reimu quipped, before dodging another ofuda storm sent her way by the Reimu bot.

"Spy Sign! Seeker Dolls!"

Alice sent her dolls into the air, while the Alice bot merely sent out linearly traveling Shanghai duplicates in a straight line towards Alice.

"My_dolls_are_legion." the Alice bot stated plainly, seeing the clear path to Alice open.

The dolls above then created a net of lasers below, slowly traveling towards the Alice bot who stood still until she saw the Shanghai clones exploding, and only then did she believe moving necessary.

The nets caught the Alice bot, who was fried immediately

"Wa_a_ahh_!" The screams were cut short, and static followed. The Alice bot promptly exploded afterward.

"No!_They_killed_Alice!" the Sanae bot yelled disbelievingly, before retreating back towards Reimu bot.

Reimu wasn't having too difficult of a time. She switched to her Metal Miko outfit, and the Reimu bot did too. Tossing sawblades, each of their sawblades collided against each other.

"Hmmm…" Reimu hummed, but her thinking was interrupted.

"Master_Spark!"

'Seriously?'

Reimu floated backwards, the regular pink laser zipping to life infront of her. Sawblades from the Reimu bot flew into it, but were knocked away by it.

"Master_Spark!" Reimu flew upwards to dodge it, while the Reimu bot continued throwing into it. Tossing her sawblades downward, Reimu caught the robot in a strategically advantageous position, slicing its head clean off.

Sparks and crackles were emitted from the robot's head, as it fell uselessly to the floor.

"Reimu!_Noooo!_This_can't_be_happening_ze!" the Marisa bot shouted, voice monotone but emotion eerily present in her delivery.

"Master_Spark_Master_Spark_Master_Spark…" the Marisa bot continued spamming psuedo-Master Sparks from her mini-hakkero hand, determined to shoot Reimu down.

Reimu just flew forward, the aim of the Marisa bot deteriorating to the point of being unable to track her properly.

the Sanae bot flew up to the Marisa bot. "We_need_Yukari!_We_need_to_tell_her_about_Reimu!_We_can't_keep_fighting_them!"

The Marisa bot refused to listen. "Reimu's_not_dead_ze!_She_can't_be._She's_not."

Reimu took this opportunity to change to her Heat Miko costume, and lob a fireball at the Sanae bot while Alice caught up from behind.

Sanae bot took the impact head-on, crackling as the flames wrapped its body. "N_Noo!_I'm_sorry_Marisa!" the Sanae bot finally exploded.

Marisa bot whirled to face Reimu. "No_no_no_no_no_no!"

It no longer announced its sparks, settling to keep the laser on and slowly track Reimu with it.

' _I feel bad about this._ ' Reimu sadly gazed at the Marisa bot; it was like these things had feelings.

' _They're robots, right…?_ '

Reimu switched to her classic rags, throwing ofuda to finish the Marisa bot off quickly.

It tried to dodge, but Alice's dolls flew up and held it in place, forcing it to take every hit directly.

"I'm_sorry_Reimu_Alice_Everyone…" the Marisa bot's lights stayed on a few moments longer, before fading out, the robot finally finding rest. Alice's dolls retreated, dropping the Marisa bot as it fell to the fortress rooftop below, breaking apart on impact.

Alice looked very melancholic, as did Reimu.

"Let's… just move on…" Alice muttered, disturbed by the emotion displayed by the robots.

' _Well, if that wasn't morbid…_ ' Reimu kept her thoughts to herself; she couldn't bring herself to disrespect the dead like that.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 383001

Defeated REIMU: 1000

Defeated MARISA: 1000

Defeated ALICE: 1000

Defeated SANAE: 1000

* * *

Marisa sat in Eientei, bandages covering most of her face. "Ooowwch…"

Sanae sat by her bedside, playing on a 3DS.

Yukari popped out of a gap, appearing to be coming out of the blanket. "Guess who?"

Marisa flinched in surprise, not expecting her there. "W-woah! Hey, Yukari…" Marisa proceeded to check under the blanket just to make sure.

Yukari pouted. "Why the long face? Your friends are fine, I've already told you…"

"It's not that, exactly, but…" Marisa began, hesitating. "...I don't wanna back down, ze."

Yukari's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you certain? You're not in much condition to be out of bed…"

"I'm sure. I wanna be there." Marisa had decided.

"Very well…" Yukari ripped opened a door-sized gap in the middle of the room. "Do as you wish." Yukari retreated into her own gap.

Marisa clambered out of bed. "Get up, Sanae, we're going, ze."

Sanae's head jerked up from her 3DS. "Yes- wait, what?"

Marisa ran into the gap ahead. "Waaait!" Sanae ran in after her.

* * *

DOCTOR WILY STAGE TWO - 20000 POINTS

* * *

Reimu and Alice ran into the main entrance to the fortress.

Eight glass tubes with an opening the size of a door were lining the room. Nothing differentiated them, a buzz creating white noise for the room, as every tube had electrodes at the top, electricity visibly bouncing around from point to point.

The door ahead was locked.

Alice put a hand to her chin. "Hmmmm…"

Reimu walked up to a tube. Cautiously, she stepped into one.

"...Well, we-" Reimu was cut off as the tube slammed shut. Throwing her hands to the glass, Reimu was suddenly teleported out of the room.

"Reimu!" Alice ran up to the glass, her hands making contact but Reimu was gone already.

"This isn't good…" Alice backed away from the glass.

* * *

Reimu stepped out of an identical glass tube, now in a different room. The room's aesthetic was similar: bland, grey metal, some graphs on the walls…

In the center of the room stood Wood Miko.

"When the leaves fall… so will you." Danmaku leaves floated in through the walls, before creating a leaf shield around Wood Miko.

' _This maniac, again?_ ' Reimu switched to her Crash Miko outfit, and flung pins at Wood Miko. The pins pierced some of the leaves, while some of the pins were blasted away by the leaves, clattering to the floor.

All involved pins exploded, however, engulfing Wood Miko in a series of blasts.

"This is not a joke!" Wood Miko leaped forward, her leaf shield flying towards Reimu.

Reimu leaped over it, and then shifted her Heat Miko colors on, igniting herself to protect herself from the whirling blades above.

Wood Miko summoned another leaf shield, whereas Reimu lifted a fireball.

Reimu tossed the fireball as Wood Miko charged her. The fireball exploded into a torrent of flames on impact, Wood Miko's leaf shield failing as she was engulfed in an inferno.

"A-aauuugh!" Wood Miko yelled out, flailing at the fire.

Reimu switched to her own Wood Miko outfit, summoning a whirlwind of blade-like leaves. Reimu sent the leaf shield forward to unleash the finishing blow, only for the Wood Miko to accept the leaves.

"Didn't you know!? I was borne from nature and machines of war!" Wood Miko taunted, the leaves being absorbed by her skin, her wounds healing.

Reimu took the moment that Wood Miko taunted to toss a fireball, causing Wood Miko to abruptly explode in a bright light.

* * *

Reimu found herself flung out of the glass tube back in the hub room, Alice kneeling in the center.

"Y-you're okay!" Alice stuttered, standing up.

The glass tube's electrodes no longer conducted electricity, the pale yellow lighting it had shutting off.

"What was in there?" Alice asked, curious.

Reimu scowled. "Wood Miko."

Alice's eyes widened. "What? How? Isn't she dead?"

Reimu stood from her landing position, brushing herself off. "Well, if she somehow wasn't before, she is now."

Reimu saw seven more lighted glass tubes. "I've got a feeling this is going to be a trend."

Alice's eyes widened, realizing the scope of the situation. "Are you sure you should be doing this without Marisa? You've had help before, haven't you?"

Reimu nodded. "But now… I've also got all of their powers. They've got to have weaknesses I can exploit, surely. I know Heat Miko really hates bubbles, and Wood Miko really hated fire, for obvious reasons, so perhaps the rest have similar tastes…"

Alice nodded, bringing her hands together. "Be careful, Reimu. We want you back in one piece."

Reimu chuckled. "A heartfelt sentiment from you, Alice? Now I know things are dire."

Alice smiled.

* * *

Reimu appeared in the room, stepping out of the glass tube.

Flash Miko was awaiting her, ofuda in hand.

"Heeey! Reimu!" Flash Miko dashed for her.

' _I have a question…_ '

Reimu switched to her Flash Miko outfit and stopped time, if only to sate her curiosity.

The world shined, and Flash Miko blushed, slowing her dash.

"Oohhh… That feels good~..." Flash Miko staggers towards Reimu, arms outstretched.

' _I've got a feeling everyone's elements heal themselves…_ '

Reimu resumed time and switched to her Quick Miko outfit.

' _If she's all about stopping things, what if I was quick? Not much difference, honestly, they're just boomerangs…_ '

Reimu leaped upward. Flash Miko stopped time, but similar to when Sakuya was around, she could only toss ofuda in a very stiffly aimed line depending on where she was facing.

"Ugh, that stupid doctor couldn't replicate it properly…"

Reimu tossed a boomerang, striking Flash Miko in the gut.

"Aaayyygghhh! Fuck!" Flash Miko bowled over on the floor in pain, grasping where she was struck tightly.

"...What." Reimu lifted a boomerang and stared at it.

' _They don't hit that hard, surely…_ '

Flash Miko staggered to her feet. "Look, Reimu… I love you and all, but that was just _wrong_."

Reimu switched to her Heat Miko outfit. "I-ah, uhm, I'm sorry?"

' _Why am I apologizing!?_ '

Flash Miko blushed. "I-it's okay… You know what, here." Flash Miko took out a bottle of E-pills, and tossed them at the wall.

The explosion took out the wallside, blinding both Flash Miko and Reimu. When the light fades, the other side of the wall appears to be the very glass tube Reimu entered to get into the chamber, which was shattered in the blast.

"I'm done for today. Maybe we can go on a date or something some other time." Flash Miko walked out of the rectangular room, and strolled past Alice.

Reimu walked out of the room after her. "...Um, alright, I guess."

Alice and Reimu watched her walk out of the door and explode into a bright yellow light like the rest of the clones.

"What even happened there!? I programmed her specifically not to do that!" Wily's voice sounded over the intercom, disbelieving.

Reimu shrugged her arms. "I don't even know…"

Reimu's eyes scanned the last six glass tubes.

"Well, if they all go that smoothly I think we'll be fine." Reimu quipped, approaching another tube.

"Don't get careless, Reimu." Alice advised.

Reimu waved a hand as she walked into the next tube. "I know, I know…"

* * *

Reimu arrived in the glass tube, the room ahead of her nothing but water.

' _I should probably prepare for this…_ ' Reimu pre-emptively switched to her Bubble Miko gear.

The tube opened, water flooding in. Walking outside, Reimu saw the Bubble Miko.

"You, again? What was that about my gear? You seem to be needing it now!" Bubble Miko yelled at Reimu.

Reimu chuckled. "Oh, be quiet, you. Besides, I've got an idea."

' _I wonder…_ '

Reimu switched to her Air Miko outfit, and created an air bubble of wind around her head.

Bubble Miko blanched. "W-what!? Only my gear should be able to give you any sort of survivability under these waves!"

Reimu switched to her Crash Miko outfit, the air bubble sustaining itself around her head.

Bubble Miko swam upwards, raining bubbles downward towards Reimu. Reimu then fired pins towards them, popping them all, a few tagging Bubble Miko.

Bubble Miko flailed as they exploded, throwing her about.

"Gaah! Little do you realize, water smoothes the impact!" Another pin lands on Bubble Miko. "...but it still hurts, you kn-"

An explosion sent Bubble Miko spiraling, as Reimu switched to her Heat Miko outfit. She rose her arm to toss a fireball, only for no fire to be produced.

'Ah. Right. Water.'

Reimu switched to her Quick Miko outfit, spiraling out of the way of water-current missiles being sent her way by an angry Bubble Miko.

"I fight strong! I swim fa-" A boomerang blindsided Bubble Miko mid-exclamation.

"No, you won't last, you snorkeled psychopath." Reimu quipped, tossing another boomerang.

"Well then… this is the end of the line for you, Hakurei!"

"Bubble Sign - The BubbleMax 2000!"

A wave of bubbles washed across the battlefield, Reimu holding her breath as her air bubble was flooded in moments.

Various landmines from the ceiling floated down, forcing Reimu to weave past them.

' _She actually bothered to make a spellcard!?_ '

Reimu tossed boomerangs forward, which cleaved through a couple bubbles of the horde before coming to a stop, being swept away with the tide.

Reimu was pressed against the wall, heavy waves and bubbles pressing against her body and face.

' _I've gotta end this soon… or I'm going to drown!_ '

Bubble Miko chortled happily. "Hahaha! Welcome to Davy Jone's locker, Armpit Miko!"

Reimu switched to her Metal Miko outfit, and tossed a sawblade forward. The sawblade sailed through all the bubbles, and while slightly offset by the uneven wave currents, it sailed past Bubble Miko's face.

"What!? Not the blades, not again!"

Reimu tossed another blade, nicking the Bubble Miko's arm.

"Grah! Drown, will you!?" Bubble Miko closed the distance to grapple Reimu, a big mistake.

' _You're fish food!_ '

Reimu spun around, and whirled a blade point-blank at the Bubble Miko's face.

"Cra-!"

A bright yellow light enveloped the room, Bubble Miko presumably beheaded. A drain was heard, the water receding into the grated floor.

KABLAM

The landmines on the ceiling all exploded simultaniously, forcing Reimu to cover her ringing ears.

' _Owwwoowww…_ '

Reimu's head surfaced the water, and she took a deep breath. The room was now entirely empty aside from heavy moisture. Walking into the glass tube, Reimu exited the arena.

* * *

Reimu walked out into the main room again, glass teleporter behind her shutting down.

Alice smiled. "How was it that time?"

Reimu looked down at her dress, dripping wet. "A little damp."

Reimu proceeded into the next glass tube, wasting no time.

* * *

Staring at the glass tube ahead, the Quick Miko waited with her arms folded.

' _Where even am I? I don't remember a thing…_ '

With a brief flash, the Hakurei Miko appeared in the glass tube, and stepped out.

"Oh, you. What were you thinking last time anyway?" the Hakurei Miko asked her.

The Quick Miko rubbed the back of her head. "I… don't know. I don't remember much. I know you're a...miko like me. Hakurei Miko, yes?"

"Well, you got that right. Who else was in the fight?"

"That's all. What fight?" Quick Miko knew nothing more.

' _Kill her…? Why must, I mean, would I... Kill…_ '

Quick Miko held her head. "Ugh… I-I can't control myself…" Her vision blurred.

The Hakurei Miko sighed, and smiled sadly. "I see… I think I see now…" She changed into her Flash Miko outfit.

Quick Miko couldn't see much anymore, her bloodlust beginning to take over. She lunged for Reimu, but froze in place.

The world gained an almost unholy but brilliant shine to it.

' _What… is this? So… slow...my blood flow slows… that's right…_ '

Quick Miko's eyes flickered. ' _Damn that doctor… Let me rest. I'm not the quickest, at all._ '

Hakurei Miko was slowly stepping towards the Quick Miko, but to her surprise the Quick Miko exploded into a brilliant yellow light, dying before Reimu got to say anything to her.

' _Burn this town… for there is no law to be found here. Not anymore._ '

* * *

Alice sat on a block outside, watching as Reimu re-entered the main room.

"You know, we feel every time you stop time, those of us in the general vicinity" Alice added.

Reimu shrugged. "I kinda figured. It's a weird ability."

Both girls jumped as the intercom sounded. "How much money did I waste on remaking those imbeciles!? Half of them are dead already, and it's only been half an hour!"

Reimu glared at the intercom, entering the next teleporter.

* * *

Reimu stepped out of the glass teleporter, the temperature heavy and overbearing.

' _Gee, I wonder…_ '

Reimu switched to her Crash Miko outfit. Infront of her, Heat Miko materialized from a pillar of flames.

"From the depths of Hell I call your name! Hakurei Reimu! Can you feel the heat!?"

Reimu dived out of the way as a huge pillar of fire erupted from under her. Her legs got brushed by the initial blast, lightly burning them, her dress beginning to light.

Reimu tossed pins at Heat Miko. Heat Miko grabbed them, letting some land on her, and began to eat them.

' _Um…_ ' Reimu switched to her Heat Miko outfit, nervously backing away from the display.

The pins exploded, and Heat Miko shot out of the explosions not a moment later, and then the whole room was turned into a box of flames as Heat Miko excitedly darted around the room, almost literally bouncing off the walls with energy.

Reimu's Heat Miko outfit allowed her to convert all of the heat immediately around her to her own, preventing damage.

Heat Miko was standing in the middle of the room, blushing.

"G-got more…?" Heat Miko stumbled towards Reimu.

"What? N-no, get away!" Reimu kicked Heat Miko away as she approached.

Reimu switched to her Air Miko outfit, as Heat Miko recovered from the force of the kick. Creating a blast of air, Heat Miko flew against the wall, her flames extinguishing. She quickly re-ignited herself, running against the wind.

Reimu switched to her Quick Miko outfit, dodging out of the way as Heat Miko charged past her. She tossed the boomerangs at Heat Miko, which were agile enough that most of them pierced the flames and heat and hit her before disintegrating. Heat Miko staggered back after multiple strikes from the boomerangs from all sides.

"E-egh…" Heat Miko kneeled, regaining her breath. A melee swipe with a boomerang sent her against the wall, as Reimu switched to her Bubble Miko outfit.

"G-guh…" Heat Miko tried to limp away from the oncoming bubble, but it splashed on her, forcing her to dive to the floor in agony.

"Gahhh-aaahhh!" Heat Miko exploded into a brilliant yellow light, leaving behind a pool of fire and magma in her wake.

' _That was fast…_ ' Reimu sighed.

* * *

Reimu walked out of the teleporter mildly singed from the encounter.

Alice did a double take. "Woah… what happened in there?"

Reimu grunted, moving forward to the next teleporter.

* * *

Reimu saw the back of an orange-white miko.

"Um… hello?" Reimu greeted awkwardly.

Crash Miko whirled around, hands still replaced by pins and a metal plate bolted over her mouth, eyes feral.

Reimu switched to her Air Miko outfit, using the wind to repel the wave of pins fired at her effortlessly.

Reimu looked sad. "I kinda wish I didn't have to do this to you, but…"

Reimu flung Crash Miko into the ceiling, smashing her against it. Her eyes blinked unevenly, the impact dealing great impact upon her explosion-resistant, but not blunt-impact resistant engineered body.

Reimu let the wind subside, Crash Miko falling. Reimu then made the wind slam her against the ceiling again. Reimu repeated this process until Crash Miko exploded into the bright yellow light once more.

' _I'm sorry…_ '

* * *

Reimu walked out of the teleporter melancholically.

"That was a fast one…" Alice looked up in surprise, not expecting Reimu to finish the fight already.

"Not all of these clones are bad people at all." Reimu provided, walking into the next teleporter.

* * *

Alice stared at Reimu as she vanished, wondering just what exactly went down in some of the chambers.

Reimu walked out of the teleporter, looking forward at Metal Miko, the clone standing before her.

"Ah… it's you." Reimu stretched.

"Hmph… I may have been a slouch the first time around…"

Reimu prepared her Metal Miko costume, and drew a sawblade.

"...but this time…"

A storm of sawblades flew out from behind Metal Miko.

"Metal Sign - Industrial Revolution!"

Reimu shielded herself with the sawblade, the oncoming blades bouncing and clanking off it for the most part. Reimu ran adjacent to the storm where she could, although eventually her sawblade broke after one too many impacts.

"Crap!" Reimu blurted out, leaping back from the orbiting storm of blades. Reimu drew another sawblade, and started grazing the storm again.

"And now you di~e!" Metal Miko sent the storm of blades outwards, the blades bouncing across the room.

Reimu leaped, grazed, slided, and glided her way around the room, doing acrobatics to dodge sawblades, and occasionally blocking the unavoidable ones.

Reimu lobbed a sawblade at Metal Miko, whose body was instantly cleaved into. The blade stopped, falling out of her, as blood ran down her open torso.

"Waahh-aaauuuggh!" Metal Miko called out in anguish, blood gushing down her dress.

Reimu switched to her Quick Miko attire, not comfortable with bisecting her outright. Reimu tossed a boomerang forward, striking Metal Miko head-on.

"Not… again…" Metal Miko coughed up blood, falling backward. "Damn you…"

Reimu switched to her classic rags. "It's over, Metal Miko. I didn't think you'd be so vulnerable to your own moves, but…"

Metal Miko shook with rage. "That… quack of a doctor…"

Reimu raised an ofuda. "This seems familiar."

Metal Miko opened her mouth to curse, only to get a mouth full of ofuda instead. A brilliant yellow light enveloped the room as per usual.

* * *

"Now, there's only one left…"

Reimu stared at the last teleporter, which definitely lead to Air Miko by this point.

"Beat her up, Reimu!" Alice cheered, eagerly anticipating Reimu's victory.

"I'll see what I can do." Reimu walked into the teleporter.

* * *

Reimu stepped out of the teleporter.

"You." Air Miko glared blood and thunder at Reimu.

"Me." Reimu stared blankly at Air Miko.

Reimu equipped her Wood Miko costume, summoning a leaf shield.

Air Miko summoned a tornado where she stood.

"Perish, now." Air Miko soared at her with her tornado.

Reimu grazed it, being held from the wind's force by her leaf shield, which was mostly destroyed in the pass. Reimu discarded the leaves and summoned new ones as Air Miko prepared to make another pass.

"Wind, come!" Air Miko leaped to the middle of the room, and shot a ball of air at Reimu, whose leaf shield took the entirety of the impact, but the leaves were all shattered.

"Reimu!" Air Miko surfed around the roof the room with her wind, as Reimu prepared another leaf shield.

"Wear the face of despair!" Air Miko lifted her arms…

"Air Sign - Annihilation of Monsteropolis!"

A ravaging storm shook the entirety of the room, Reimu being thrown around mercilessly by the wind, her leaves being reduced to nothing.

' _This-_ ' "Augh!" ' _-isn't-_ ' "Aagh!" ' _-good…_ ' "Oowww!"

Reimu switched to her Air Miko outfit, easing the impacts slightly.

The wind finally died down, Reimu dropping to the floor as her costume flickered to the wind-ravaged rags of the Wood Miko outfit.

Air Miko slowly walked up to a motionless Reimu.

"...Pathetic. Your life is mine, Hakurei." She lifted her sandaled foot, ready to stomp down and end Reimu's life.

Reimu activated her leaf-shield as she raised her foot, the leave clinging to the Air Miko as she shot away quickly.

"What!?"

"Sneak attack, bitch!" Reimu dashed towards Air Miko, who was scrambling to pull leaves off herself, and hugged her, the leaves gravitating towards the Air Miko.

"No! Leech! Scum! Get off of me, vermin!" Air Miko shouted, desperately fighting Reimu but strength dissipating as once again the leaves overcame her.

Reimu switched to her Heat Miko getup, and charged a fireball. Air Miko struggled to her feet, a few portions of her body uncovered, including her face.

"And now…" Reimu readied to toss it. "...you get to burn in Hell with the rest of your ill-mannered sisters!" Reimu tossed the fireball at Air Miko, who was struck head-on, the blast quickly enveloping her and all the leaves in flames. A bright yellow light shined, Air Miko exploding into flaming torrents of wind and ash.

' _That ends that…_ '

* * *

Reimu walked outside, her Wood Miko outfit in rags from the harsh wind.

"Glad to see you made it, Reimu." Alice patted Reimu on the back. "Even I felt that last one from out here. Simply crazy…"

Reimu looked at the door ahead, which unlocked.

Alice stared unsurely ahead. "Reimu… are you certain we shouldn't turn back and wait for the others? We surely can't continue on in this state…"

Reimu walked forward. "We do what we have to do, Alice. If we leave now, who knows if he'll just remake all those clones again? It's all down to us now. Come on."

Alice blinked, and followed Reimu through the open door.

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 403001

CLEARED STAGE 2: 20000

* * *

Yukari sat on a chair, patiently waving a foot.

* * *

DOCTOR WILY

* * *

In the center of a huge, circular room, Reimu and Alice walked out onto a long catwalk extending to the center of it.

"This seems rather ominous…" Reimu narrowed her eyes.

The large circular room had images of space and stars projected. Suddenly, Alice and Reimu were forced to fly as the catwalk disappeared entirely.

Doctor Wily floated down from above. "You children have broken the last straw! Behold the power of the true Hakurei Miko!"

Wily's appearance shifted to that of Reimu, donning her traditional red-white shrine maiden miko outfit.

Reimu summoned a leaf shield, and flew backwards. Alice had Shanghai and Hourai orbit her, as she floated back away from Wily aswell.

"Spirit Sign! Fantasy Orb!"

Wily sent out a storm of brightly colored rainbow orbs out, homing in towards Alice and Reimu.

One shattered Reimu's leaf shield, and two more struck her, blowing her far back.

Alice was nearly defenseless, sending out a plethora of dolls to simply slow one to the point of being able to dodge it. The following orbs struck her, sending her soaring across the battlefield.

' _Ugh… I can't lose here…_ ' Reimu braced herself, switching to her Air Miko outfit, except…

She thought about Marisa, and the injury she received trying to help her defend Gensokyo. She thought about all the different clones, who all had their different personalities, emotions, and skills, who all died just to serve the will of this mad doctor.

Reimu looked to Alice, who was slowly floating back, clearly exhausted from all the fighting.

Reimu closed her eyes, shooting them open again.

"Mega Miko - Emotional Harmony!"

Reimu's outfit glowed. Suddenly, her outfit was replaced with a bright, rainbow-colored shrine-maiden outfit. Reimu threw ofuda, bubbles, blades, and pins into the air, creating a variety of effects.

"Now we're talking…" Reimu felt the emotions and elements within her body align. This was it!

"Fancy, but futile!" Wily shouted out.

"Spirit Sign! Fantasy Orb!"

Alice barely registered Reimu's transformation, but registered the call-out of the new spellcard, eyes widening. "No, no no! Noo!"

Reimu was ready to counter it.

"Air Miko - Wind God's Disdain!"

Reimu enveloped herself with a tornado, and soared over to Alice. The tornado slowed the oncoming rainbow orbs, allowing Reimu to grab onto Alice who was about to get swept away by the tornado aswell.

' _Even now, it feels like it will just become a stalemate…_ '

The rainbow orbs fizzled out, giving Reimu an opening.

"Heat Miko - Miko On Fire!"

Reimu tosses Alice away, before engulfing herself in a raging inferno. She dashes towards Wily.

"Divine Arts! Sky Conquering Wind God Kick!"

Wily zooms towards Reimu, who barrel rolls out of the way before the kick connects. Wind from the kick protects Wily from the heat and flames, while Reimu does a hard turn to come back around. Wily ducks out of the way and speeds away from Reimu.

"Wood Miko - Carved From Mighty Oak!"

Reimu suddenly had a large oak set of armor on, flames completely dissipating. Reimu slowly floated towards Wily, wielding a huge wooden bokken.

"Spirit Sign! Fantasy Orb!"

' _Again? Did he memorize my cards at all…?_ '

Reimu didn't attempt to dodge, as all of the orbs struck her dead on, the armor being reduced to shambles but protecting her fully from every single orb.

Reimu, now with most of the armor gone, was able to effectively whack Wily with the huge wooden bokken.

"Grraarraah!" Wily flew downwards, before diverting to the side and coming back up.

"Pesky vermin, you are! But it is no matter, because my spells are better than yours!"

Reimu grinned. "Are you certain of that?"

Wily opted to glare at her. "Why, you little…"

"Dream Sign! Duplex Barrier!"

Simple barriers and amulets are produced, giving Reimu an idea.

"Flash Miko - Millennium Bug!"

Time stopped, no sheen created on the world, and no one noticed time was stopped. This spell truly stopped time.

Reimu floated into melee range, and resumed time.

Wily didn't see the Hakurei miko anywhere. "Did I get her?...Wahahaha! Take that, you filthy ra-" Wily got slammed on the head by the giant wooden bokken again, breaking the spellcard and forcing him to float down and away again.

"This is where it all ends…" Wily began charging power.

"Divine Spirit! Fantasy Seal!"

A huge plethora of rainbow orbs materialized, making Reimu blanch.

'This… can't be…'

Reimu fell back as innumerable orbs trailed her, quickly gaining speed.

"Nooo!" Reimu shouted, speeding away.

"Magicannon - Final Master Spark!"

Marisa, torso and face adorned in bandages, aimed her mini-hakkero, and let out a gigantic laser of immense proportions. Reimu barreled out of the way, seeing the laser coming.

The Master Spark traveled through every orb, destroying each of them as they'd all grouped together nicely to chase Reimu exclusively.

Alice drifted unconscious on the edge of the battlefield, where Sanae came up to her and grabbed her to transport her to safety.

Wily saw the spark traveling towards him. "Spirit Sign! Fantasy Orb!"

Wily let out more orbs, which did little against the spark.

"What!? This cannot be! I am the Hakurei Miko!"

Doctor Wily, wearing Reimu's body in clothing, was fully engulfed by the Love-colored Master Spark.

When the spark faded Wily appeared to be no more.

"A real Gensokyian…" Marisa twirled her mini-hakkero once more. "...woulda dodged that."

The group heard a loud beeping noise, forcing them to cover their ears. The stars and space around them flickered out of existence, and they were all revealed to be in a large metal room. Wily was in the center of the catwalk, managing a large machine.

A metal box was floating where they thought Wily previously was. It was smoking, crackling, and finally exploded.

The shield around the central portion of the catwalk failed, and Wily got out of his machine.

"Um…" The three conscious Gensokyo girls floated towards Wily slowly. "Y-you see, uh…"

Wily dropped to his knees, expression declining. "I'll go quietly…"

Marisa lifted him by one hand. "You'd better, ze, or you're gonna be youkai chow."

Reimu lifted Wily by his other arm. "You're not worthy of death, Doctor. I'm sealing you away."

Doctor Wily remained still. "Very well. Do what you must."

Sanae raised a brow. "Very reserved for how he was earlier…"

A gap opened up infront of the group. "Very, very good, all of you! I'm impressed. Let's get back to the shrine, shall we?"

The group all nodded, determined grins on their faces, except for Wily, who was solemnly gazing into the gap.

* * *

EPILOGUE

* * *

Reimu now had her normal shrine maiden attire on, her rainbow getup in her drawer somewhere.

The Hakurei Shrine was now properly rebuilt, and Reimu was sitting at the front steps drinking her tea.

To her left was Marisa, and to her right was Alice. Sanae was to the right of Alice, and to the right of her was Sakuya. Orin and Satori on the outlying edges of the steps.

Yukari sat above them, on a gap.

They all sipped their tea quietly.

A few yards away, a pile of scrap metal was shoddily buried in a pit. Wards were placed all over it; said pit was where Reimu Hakurei had sealed Doctor Wily in for his misdeeds across Gensokyo and threatening of the balance.

Reimu blinked, staring at the sky. "Back to normal… I'm glad, for once."

Marisa nodded. "You said it, ze."

* * *

From the top of the Hakurei Shrine, a figure in a red-white shrine maiden outfit stared down at the group. The figure's scarf blew in the wind, helmet shining as the sun's dying rays were cast upon it.

"..." The mysterious figure leaped off the rooftop, and flew high into the sky, away from the group.

* * *

END

* * *

TOTAL SCORE: 443001

Defeated DOCTOR WILY: 40000

* * *

MIKO BACKGROUND INFO:

METAL MIKO: The first clone of Reimu to be located by Doctor Wily. Outfitted with a basic but deadly ability, her fun-loving nature was blended with a sadistic streak when she was weaponized.

BUBBLE MIKO: This clone of Reimu was never located by Doctor Wily; instead naturally harboring a dislike for the Hakurei Miko for being better than her. She sought redemption among her sisters for vanquishing Reimu.

HEAT MIKO: Very angsty and primal clone of Reimu, who acts very much more akin to a youkai than to a human. Hakurei pin-time-bombs are her favorite snack. Located by Wily and manipulated with the promise of killing the Hakurei Miko, which she did get a shot at at the very least.

WOOD MIKO: Another weaponized clone who was a bioengineering project regarding what contacts Wily could reach out with with his Reimu disguise. He had ordered the creation of E-pills, although apparently Eirin never figured out who ordered the creation. E-pills were used in the maiden model of Wood Miko, but turned out to be counter-productive when lit on fire.

FLASH MIKO: A loving clone of Reimu's who has a desire to make love to Reimu. She has a bootleg time-stopping ability that can be foiled by actual practitioners of time-stopping. Tasked by Wily to attract attention on the surface, she succeeded for only some time.

CRASH MIKO: A clone of Reimu who defied Wily, originally having no power other than her sturdiness. Her own hardiness became her downfall when Wily captured her and weaponized her, sawing off her hands and installing a metal plate over her mouth. Wishing for death, she was programmed to kill Reimu. In the end, her will overcame the program and she gave up her ability and life to Reimu.

AIR MIKO: A disdainful, independent clone of Reimu who wishes for nothing more than a giant tombstone with Gensokyo engraved on it. Wily reached out to her to give her the supplies for a fortress, which was the extent of their interactions.

QUICK MIKO: A dutiful, heroic clone of Reimu who strived to save the human village and slay the Youkai scourge from Gensokyo once and for all. Sadly for her, Gensokyo was a world made for youkai, not humans, so her goal was doomed from the start. She was mowed down fighting for what she believed in.

* * *

Author's Note:

well that was an adventure

I've had fun! this was a pretty liberating fic to create and it was an idea on my mind for awhile that I really wanted to do something with; and I had a direction to take it which helped and hurt in various instances.

dunno if I should split this into chapters or what because it's huge for a single entry

multiple places where I think I might'ave done characterization wrong but yaknow I think it's alright; I'm still learning to get good grasp of characters and things

should get a proof-reader or something for the italicizing and other issues; i may have done things horribly horribly wrong when it comes down to it like once or twice but yaknow 2 AM typing sessions do that to you

none of my friends are going to want to proof-read this 38k word frikfest in one sitting .w.

BIGGEST PROBLEMS: italicizing may be absent in some places it should be, and I feel like I didn't represent Alice's dolls nearly well enough until the end where I was like "oh crap shanghai and hourai are things that exist right". can't believe I forgot about them for so long.

also, funky spellcard system in this gensokyo but it's whatever honestly

welcome to the biggest freakin one-shot ever, by the way

ahhhh

DISCLAIMER: Touhou Project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice, aka ZUN. Heavy inspiration for the traits of the mikos comes from songs by the Megas, a band that plays MEGA MAN music! Check 'em out! MEGA MAN belongs to CAPCOM, finally.

see you all next time~

A FREAKIN SKOOLATOON678658568


End file.
